The Vault of Emrys
by Kitty O
Summary: The Vault of Emrys can only be opened by the key, the legendary sword Excalibur, currently thought to be in the possession of Arthur Pendragon. When Arthur and his wife, Guinevere, are attacked and nearly killed, it's up to agent team Merlin and Morgana to keep things together and delve into the couple's secrets. Spy!AU, some bits of Arwen and Mergana.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter One**

Arthur Pendragon sighed as he grabbed hold of the key and turned off the car, sitting back and taking a deep breath. He grabbed his key chain in his hand and put his head back into the rest, taking another breath and rubbing his free hand down his face. He guessed he would have to get up now and go inside the house, but the truth was that he felt that climbing out of this comfortable seat was just beyond him.

But he had always been stronger than he looked (and he didn't look like a weakling by any means), so at last he grabbed the door handle and climbed out. He shut the door of his silver little car, then remembered and opened it again to grab his briefcase, then re-shut it. He nodded to a man in a suit a little fancier than the one Arthur wore from across the street, but the man didn't acknowledge him, so Arthur shrugged and turned towards his front door. He fiddled with his keys – and dropped them. He caught them again in the blink of an eye, and then laughed at himself a little.

There was a day a slip like that would have bought him a one-way trip to the morgue.

Entering the house, he called out, hoping his wife would hear him, "Guinevere?"

A short, pretty browned-skinned woman with shining eyes popped her head out of the other room. "Arthur!" she said happily, beaming, wiping her hands on her blue jeans as she came into the foyer to hug him and kiss him. "How was your day?" she asked.

"Tiring," he answered.

"Poor Arthur," Gwen said, putting her hands on his pale cheeks and pulling his head down so that she could plant a kiss on his soft blond hair. "I haven't done anything all day, so you sit down and I'll make you an early dinner. Sound good?"

He nodded, closing his eyes in pleasure at the prospect of sitting down and relaxing.

She walked him over to the sofa and went into the kitchen.

"What are we having?" he called.

"Not really sure," she answered. "But I went shopping just yesterday so we should have something ready to be cooked. I promise it will be good."

He reached over and grabbed the book that he assumed she'd been reading, since it was open, spine up, in a highly disrespectful way that Gwen would never allow to happen for more than a few minutes, and because the seat where he sat was still warm. "I like your new haircut," he called, flipping through the pages.

"I didn't think you'd noticed," she called back.

"Course I did," he said, and then looked up from the sofa and out the window to see a man pass by, looking like he had a direction in mind. It wasn't a big deal, of course… People walked across this window all the time. But this man was walking towards the same spot the man in the suit had been standing. Was he still there?

It _still_ wasn't a big deal, but Arthur dropped the book and forced himself to get into the feet and go into the kitchen.

"Gwen?" he asked.

"Yes?" she said. "Arthur, I feel like baking. Perhaps I should make a cake."

He laughed. "Your either trying to fatten me up, butter me up, or you need to find a job again."

She grinned. "I suppose I'm a little bored around now," she said, and her smile faltered a bit. "It used to be so peaceful, you know," she said, "just sitting around and recuperating, but now it's starting to get a bit dull. Why don't we…"

"No," Arthur said.

She raised an eyebrow. "I was going to suggest we have cake tomorrow instead."

He didn't believe her, but he shrugged it off, and true to her easygoing nature, so did Guinevere. "What were you going to ask?" she said. "Earlier."

"Oh, I wanted to know if you'd noticed any strange people hanging around the street recently."

"No, it's not very busy. Why?" she asked, turning away from Arthur and opening the refrigerator door again. Arthur moved back a little, rocking on his feet.

Just then, the hail of bullets started.

Arthur hit the ground before he even had time to consciously recognize that he was being shot at and that the window to their side door had just shattered too close to him for comfort. His tiredness evaporated like a puddle at middday. Guinevere too threw herself to the ground in the blink of an eye; for a second he thought she'd been hit. More shots rang through the air, but Gwen was crawling across the floor, uninjured.

They were firing through the side door, which was where Arthur and Gwen had just been standing. They were obviously watching windows. Arthur flipped the table so it provided some slight cover and gestured between its legs for Guinevere to come over.

She crawled next to him and checked the outside of the kitchen quickly by craning her neck. No one had snuck into the house that way. "What did you _do_?" she griped to Arthur, pursing her lips.

"Me?" he said, not amused. "_Me_? You're the one who's been wanting to go back and—"

A few more shots, not as enthusiastic. They ducked instinctively. A part on the edge of the table blew apart.

"They're probably just hoping to hit us before they come in, make their job easy," Arthur said, pressing close to the counter. "Can we get to the guns?"

"No," Guinevere answered, brushing her black curls into a ponytail swiftly. "We wouldn't make it; they're past the window."

"We'll go out the back."

"When?"

"Give it a few more seconds of silence. They might think we're dead. Give me your cell."

Guinevere fished it from her jeans' pocket and handed it to him. He quickly pushed five numbers in rapid succession: 22658. He pressed the device to his ear.

"_I'm sorry,"_ said the tinny voice on the other end, _"the number cannot be completed as dialed…"_

"Emergency," said Arthur. "It's Arthur Pendragon, Camelot!"

There was a pause. Gwen was tense, waiting for more bullets. Then:_ "One second, sir." _Another voice, a masculine one: _"Is this an emergency?"_

"This is Arthur Pendragon, my wife and I are being shot at. We're going to try and make it out the…" He paused and looked at Gwen.

"Back door," she said. "We'll cut across the neighbors' field."

Arthur continued, "Back—"

"I heard," said the man. "Stay alive, we'll send help within fifteen minutes."

Arthur hit the end button. "They aren't firing."

Gwen leaned slightly, squinting. "They're approaching the house," she hissed, slamming back into the counter to avoid being seen. "Let's run."

She leapt to her feet and hit the back door in the blink of an eye, tearing it open. Arthur was right behind her, her phone with its pink cover pressed to his ear again, for he'd finally dialed the usual number for emergencies.

Gwen rushed, a brown streak, through the grass of their yard and scuttled over the neighbor's wood fence. Arthur was talking into the phone, slightly winded – he was getting out of shape – babbling about being shot at and their street address and the nearest officer.

"There, they're running!" shouted a gruff voice, and Arthur cursed and dropped the cell phone. He might have stepped on it in his haste to climb over the fence after his wife, but he wasn't sure. It was harder to run in his suit than in her t-shirt and those comfortable jeans she was always going on about, but he was glad that he probably wouldn't have to worry about her getting away.

"Stay away from the neighbor's house," he shouted. "They might shoot."

She didn't respond to him, but he knew that she had heard and would listen. Arthur was right behind her, looking over his shoulder and wishing that he carried a gun with him like he used to do. He would like to head for a busy place, but he would never make it to his car, and he lived in an uncongested little subdivision. He heard gunshots behind him and prickled all over, waiting for pain.

This had all been _his_ brilliant idea. Move to someplace with only a few neighbors, stay out of trouble, get normal jobs… Maybe he should have listened to Gwen.

There were perhaps two men following them. Hadn't he spotted more out by the side of the house when he burst out the back, though? Gwen was faster than all of them—she'd get away, Arthur was sure. She'd better. He pumped his feet harder and kept hunched, making himself a smaller target. It was hard to run while shooting, though, as he knew, so he kept weaving and bobbing and speeding and hoping to get away.

Gwen slipped through some trees around a house and into the street. Arthur was behind her, but he looked back. The men were falling behind. If they ran around again, they might lose them.

"Gwen," he gasped, nearly right behind her. "Go around the front!"

She sprinted in front of the house, a brick affair that was a bit more expensive than theirs—but still for sale, and nobody lived there. Gwen started to go around, but Arthur stopped directly in front of the door.

"Wait," he said, taking a moment to think about his new idea.

Breaking and entering?

He'd done worse.

Arthur kicked the door; it burst open. It had always had a bad lock. That's why they hadn't bought it themselves. "Gwen," he said, but she was right behind him.

They slipped inside the darkened house and shut the door, locking it.

Gwen threw herself into Arthur's arms when he gestured, and he pulled her into the dining room and pressed into the wall, shielding her with his back. He put his face into her hair and they waited, chests bumping into each other with the heavy breathing. All around them was dark. They heard footsteps. They didn't hear shooting.

Gwen's ear was pressed to the wall. She heard someone rattle the doorknob of the front door.

She closed her eyes and her arms tightened around her husband.

Then, she heard the mumble of voices and whoever it was let go of the knob. The voices disappeared quickly.

Were they gone? Or just waiting?

After about five minutes, Arthur pulled away and gave her a look. "Wait here," he said. "And if something happens, run. I think I heard them walk away, but…"

She nodded.

He unlocked the door, peeked out and waited for gunfire. Nothing. He slipped out and looked around. Nothing. He walked forward and then turned and walked backward, eyes searching for any sign of life and flickering around the front of the house. Nothing.

And then he ran into someone soft and gave a small cry of alarm. Gwen, hearing it, came running at once – despite what he'd told her. Arthur's heart rate hit the roof as his wife appeared in the door, but he wasn't dead yet, so he turned.

And was finally facing a police officer.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Two other men walked through the splintered door of the Pendragons', kicking around the debris in the kitchen. Their comrades had run off after the escaping couple.

"Search around," one, a man in a suit a little nicer than Arthur's, told the other. "Closets, bedrooms… The fridge. They left that open."

"They wouldn't leave it lying around," the second man argued. "They aren't stupid."

"They didn't expect to be shot out, and people can get lazy," his partner snapped, sneering. "We check everywhere, like we were told. Check the walls and the drawers for secret compartments. Search under the chairs."

The other man, a big, hairy, unkempt fellow, shrugged and wandered into the living room to start his search. The smoother one, left behind, decided he would start in the kitchen.

"And get ready to hide," he said, "if the neighbors aren't hiding themselves, then they'll be over to check what happened."

"We could just take care of them," the other called.

"No extra bodies this time," the suited man said, righting the now-shot-up table. "It'll slow us down."

"Fine," the bearded man replied. "We should find it quick then… I don't know where I'll hide; their closets are tiny."

The first man chuckled to himself, shutting the refrigerator door.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay! Made it through the first chapter, have you? And so now I shall tell you what the rest of the story will contain. No slash, of course. Arwen is there (married, hard to avoid) and some Mergana, but romance will not be the focus here AT ALL. I've got some plans to draw a lot of parallels to the show with this fic, but with the major difference that Morgana never turned evil (you'll find out why) and Arthur and Merlin never met (yet)...And Arthur and Morgana aren't related.** **I'm not usually one for modern AUs... But it isn't a modern AU. It's a _SPY_ AU. **

**I'm not sure where this is set. I don't feel I know enough about England to set it there.** **I was thinking of just never specifying, or even setting it on some made up place. What do you think I should do? **

**This is my 100th story, so I have it planned to be something different, cool, and fun - and hopefully well written and true to characters (characters with a few tweaks in them - observant Arthur? It's like a miracle). **

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: To Wolf in Sheep's Clothing readers: No worries, I haven't abandoned that story for this, and there will be an update sometime soon. I'm just picking up momentum here! Please excuse mistakes…**

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Two**

Arthur and Gwen had both been arrested at some point in their lives.

It had been a failure to communicate. At least, that's what Arthur told Gwen. But they had both gotten out shortly afterward with no real harm done. All the same, they remembered the experience, so both knew what it felt like.

It felt strangely like this.

"Something is wrong," Arthur told Gwen, and she gave him one of those looks filled with kindness that he had long since learned was her way of showing sarcasm.

The police were taking them into the station. Arthur had told them what happened, how they had been shot at and ran from the attackers. Gwen had backed him up. But the policeman, showing a proclivity for missing the point, much like every other authority figure in the world (as even a second grader could testify), seemed more interested in the fact that Arthur had kicked open the door than anything.

And Arthur had pointed out rather roughly that he was being shot at. That was obviously why the police were there, anyway, he figured; he _had_called.

The man seemed sympathetic enough as he shifted and pulled up his pants with a sniff. So Arthur wasn't quite sure how he ended up in the back of a car next to his wife, buckled in with a dark screen keeping him from seeing the driver.

But it was the windows that were wrong. They were dark. He couldn't see outside of them.

Alarms going off in his head, he'd told his wife what he'd been too muddled by the whole being-shot-at-out-of-nowhere thing to realize before: something was wrong.

Cue her not-quite-sarcastic look.

"Yes," she agreed. It wasn't unthinkable that they should be taken in to give a statement or for their protection after being attacked. But Gwen had keen intuition and she felt in her bones that something was wrong. This reeked. "Are we even going to the police station?" she wondered.

Arthur had been trying to pay attention to the turns of the car to see just that, but it was too hard for him to tell how fast the car was going without being able to see the road. "Probably," he said. "I can't think why we wouldn't be."

Gwen couldn't either.

She looked at her husband with worried eyes. "Should we run?"

He shook his head. "People don't just run away from the police. Even if something's going on… It's not like we're under arrest."

She nodded. "We'll keep our eyes open."

That was as good of a plan as any. They both turned, facing the front with stony faces, and didn't talk to each other for the remainder of the trip.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

After a while, the car stopped and Gwen was helped out of the car by a man in a police outfit. Arthur's door opened, and he stepped out. A dark haired man with sunglasses looked back at him—not the man Arthur had run into.

Arthur took a moment to let his eyes flicker around. Asphalt. Parking lot? Building right up next to him, plaster-like material but he could only see part of the wall and the door, because by that time, the man had taken his arm and ushered him towards the building. Gwen was already inside, and for a moment after he'd been led into the building (receptionist desk; clean, smooth floors; legitimate looking; almost no one around—_where was everyone_?) it looked as though they were going to follow Guinevere and the man who very gently had her arm.

But then they veered off towards a side hall out of the vaguely gray-ish lobby, away from Gwen. His wife looked back at him, a question in her eyes, and he simply shrugged.

Then she was out of sight.

"Where is my wife being taken?" Arthur said.

"We just want to ask you two some questions about what happened."

"There's not a doctor here. Shouldn't I have a doctor for shock or something?"

"You aren't in shock," the man replied, and Arthur couldn't see his eyes behind the sunglasses. Should Arthur punch the man now and run for it?

Arthur was seriously considering this course of action, but then his eyes lit on the firearm the man wore at his side. The man was right-handed, and that hand was not the one holding Arthur not quite as gently as he had been. If Arthur ran, the man could have the gun out and shoot him down in about a second if he was any good at all. Arthur was good with guns; he knew he himself could do it easily, and he wasn't going to assume an opponent was less skilled than he was.

Arthur was led to a room at the end of the hall. There were two chairs facing each other, nothing else—the room was bare and bleak and it screamed of some sort of questioning. Arthur tensed. Was it too late to make a break for it? Could he find Guinevere and get out?

Probably not. Arthur let himself be pushed down into the chair. The man sat opposite him and smiled in a friendly manner. His uniform was slightly big on him. He had gray hair and orange-ish skin, the effect of which was made worse by his blindingly white teeth. This man had nice, nice teeth… At least Arthur thought so, but then his own teeth were hardly perfect.

Arthur dubbed him Toothsome.

"What's your name?" Toothsome asked.

"What's yours?"

The man gave a thin smile. "Johnson."

_Generic, darn him. _

"What's your name?" the man repeated.

"Arthur," he replied, deciding to leave off his own rather distinctive last name.

"Why were you being shot at? By who?"

"Why don't you ask my wife and me these questions at the same time? That would save you trouble and time."

Toothsome just stared at him, a giant fascinated bug-eyed monster. Arthur sighed. "I don't know who or why."

"Was it random, or did they want something?"

"I just told you I didn't know." Arthur wasn't going to get flustered. He didn't _get_ flustered. _Ever_.

"Were they perhaps after something specific? Did you know what it was? Was that why you broke into the empty house—was it there?"

Arthur's eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry," he said politely. "Am I being interrogated?"

Toothsome sat a little back in his own chair. "No," he said. "No, I'm just getting the facts from you. A crime has been committed."

"If I'm not being interrogated, can I ask you a question then?" Arthur leant forward.

The man beckoned for him to continue.

"I've made a trip or two to the police building. I've been around it if not inside. I've met quite a few of the officers… I wanted to see who they were when I moved in. Why is it that I've never seen you?"

The man took his sunglasses off. "You don't recognize me?"

"No. I've never seen you around town."

Toothsome had gray eyes. They matched his hair—steely and gave off an air of experience. Arthur was still all blond, with smooth skin and pretty blue eyes. He'd seen it in the mirror and he knew it was true; he didn't look fiercely experienced. But that didn't mean he wasn't.

"Perhaps you would be more cooperative if you had someone here you knew and a drink," Toothsome said in a friendly voice. "You've been through an ordeal."

Arthur nodded agreeably. "Perhaps my wife, too."

Toothsome stood and moved toward the door. Arthur watched him go. The door opened, Toothsome stepped out. The door closed.

Quietly, but not quietly enough, it was locked.

Arthur was out of his seat in a flash. This situation was looking more and more hostile. He was now locked in, and that man was dangerous. He'd suspected it from the moment he got out of that police car. That was indeed a police car, but heaven knew where these men had gotten it or their ill-fitting uniforms, because they were not officers and this was not the station.

Arthur walked around the room. He needed a weapon, but there was nothing. He'd bought himself minutes – maybe less – but the clock was ticking. The room was bare. Arthur could hit the guy with the chair, maybe slam him against the wall and wrench the gun from him. Maybe. It was actually a very bad idea, said the voice in his head that always sounded like Guinevere, but he needed to get out, and he had a feeling that he wouldn't get another opportunity.

He bent down, using his legs to lift, and hefted up the chair. It wasn't heavy; just an aluminum fold-out affair. But he wouldn't want to get hit by it.

Arthur started to move towards the side of the door and out of sight. But just then the door swung open, and there was Toothsome. Instead of coming in, though, he just stood right outside the doorway, his gun out and pointed at Arthur.

"Drop the chair," the man said.

Arthur did so, his breath catching in his throat. The chair clattered and slapped against his leg, but he was too busy staring at the business end of the man's handgun to notice. Arthur had never been shot before, and he didn't wish to try new things right now. "Okay," he said. "Now what?"

The man eyed Arthur and obviously decided to throw subtlety out the window. He cocked the gun and glowered at the younger man. "I've just got one question, which you will answer or get shot," he said.

And there went diplomacy. _Whoosh!_ Quite neatly defenestrated.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Two hard, all-business figures walked (or click-clacked, as the case may be) into the lobby, looking around carefully. There was no receptionist. Well, the building had been closed not too long ago, judging by the sign and the overall wholeness of the building—not in the least dilapidated.

There was no one in the lobby at all. There had only been one guard and the driver outside, easily enough rendered unconscious and helpless.

The two people made their way across the floor, looking around. There were two ways to go. Down the side hall, down the main way.

"I'll take this way," the woman said, "you can go look down that way."

"Fine," her partner agreed immediately, cracking his knuckles. She winced.

"And don't do that," she reprimanded. "Your knuckles will swell."

He chuckled and swiftly sauntered away from her, head swiveling as he took in every aspect of the recently disused interior. She rolled her eyes and made her high-heeled way down the main hall.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

"Understood," Arthur took the armed man, his hands up in the air where they'd remained after he dropped the chair. His message was clear: I'm unarmed, so don't fire.

"Where is Excalibur?"

Arthur's forehead puckered. "What?"

Toothsome lifted the gun dangerously.

"I want to know where Excalibur is. You've got it, but I don't think it's in your house. So where is it?"

Arthur licked his lips and opened his mouth.

"And don't get smart with me," the man warned.

"Sir, I don't get smart with people who have guns aimed at me. I just honestly don't know what you mean… I'm not sure what…"

The man growled and his finger curled around the trigger. Arthur's life flashed before his eyes. (He realized that he should have made better friends in grade school, been less of a bully in high school, and kissed Gwen a lot more than he had.)

"You're lying," said the man. He gave Arthur another second, but the blond didn't look like he was going to respond.

Toothsome aimed the weapon carefully at Arthur's chest, right over his heart.

A shot rang through the air, cracking in Arthur's eardrums as he gasped in shock. He hadn't thought Toothsome would actually do it. He'd thought it had been a bluff, but… Arthur's hand flew to his heart.

There was no wound and no pain. Bewildered, he looked back up—in time to see Toothsome topple over, his gun falling harmlessly out of his hand as he fell to the floor of the hall. Arthur came over to the door, staring in disbelief. The bullet had struck in the side of Toothsome's head, and the man was obviously dead, covered in blood.

Arthur could have sworn he heard his father's voice echoing in his head right there:_ And that, Arthur, is why you never play with guns. Do I make myself clear?_

A man came skittering into view, his blue eyes staring at the dead man for a second and then sliding to Arthur. He still had his gun out in his pale, bony hand, but upon noticing that it was just Arthur around he seemed less inclined to use it again.

"Arthur, I assume. That's who they said I was looking for," the black-haired slender man said immediately.

Arthur nodded and gave him a quick glance-over. "You're the help?"

Noticing that Arthur was unarmed, the new man slipped his gun up but kept his hand near the black holster which was hardly noticeable against his black slacks. His shirt was gray and uncollared, and he wore a black leather jacket. The only color on him was the red handkerchief hanging from his back pocket. "I am."

Arthur paused a second. "That was longer than fifteen minutes."

"Well, you moved."

Arthur grunted and then moved to the next thought. "Where's my wife? We need to find her."

"Down the other hall? Don't worry, Morgana's got her. Come on," the tall, thin man said, gesturing for Arthur to follow as he sprinted back down the hall. "I bet someone heard the shot."

Arthur watched him go for a small second, but then decided he didn't really have another choice, and he followed.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ahem. So, whoever wondered: George will not be this chapter. George will be NEXT chapter. Heehee...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Three**

This stranger was swift. Arthur had to move fast to keep up as he went back down the hall and into the glossy-floored lobby. Then he skidded to a stop and gestured down the other hall—the one they hadn't just come from. "Is that where your wife is?"

Arthur blinked a little longer than usual. "Yes." The stranger had run away from the room Arthur was in without knowing? It would be just like them to stick him with someone incompetent…

"Good," responded the new man. "Because that's where Morgana is."

"You told me that this 'Morgana' was going to get Guinevere, but you didn't know if she'd gone the right way?" Arthur couldn't help it. He was taken aback at this new stupidity.

The dark-haired man had a bright smile, like one of those kids on those commercials full of fake laughter. But there was something vaguely appealing about it.

"I didn't know that, but I do know Morgana," he replied, and left it at that. And Arthur realized with a start that the man was… being condescending. He was pandering to Arthur, as if _Arthur_ was the stupid one who didn't know a thing about rescue missions!

Just then, the sound of shoes came from the hallway—the clacking sound of heels and a softer pattering of flats. A young woman with striking pale skin and long dark hair came into view, wearing a zip-up black jacket and black pants. She had her hand wrapped around Gwen's arm and was nearly dragging her alarm.

"Merlin, I found the woman, did you…? I see you did." She stopped and looked Arthur up and down critically, as though he had been tried and found wanting. Arthur didn't much care, though, because Gwen detached herself from the woman and kissed him quickly.

"Are you alright?" he asked, taking in her appearance. Her hair had slipped down a bit more, and her face was reddened, but other than that she looked fine.

"I'm fine," she said, laying any fears to rest. "Our help arrived. You okay?"

Arthur nodded. "Yeah."

The woman – Morgana? – looked at the man – Merlin? – and said, "We heard a gunshot."

Merlin nodded. "Necessary, but I bet everyone around heard it. It's going to make getting out of here harder."

"Harder?" Gwen asked, turning away from her husband and looking towards Merlin. Her eyebrows drew together.

"There are a lot more men than the one guarding you," Morgana told Gwen. "All around, watching out." Her gaze became a little quizzical. "They obviously don't want to lose you. I wonder why that is?"

Gwen blinked. "No idea," she said sincerely. "We don't know." Arthur nodded as though Guinevere was right, and the skinny man sent him a funny look but shrugged it off.

Merlin looked around the lobby. It was pretty quiet. "Do you get the feeling they're waiting?"

Morgana walked towards the door. "Stand out of the way," she ordered, and Merlin drew to the side, pulling the couple with him.

Meanwhile, Arthur and Guinevere were conversing in low, quick voices.

"The door opened and she was just standing there. There was a guard outside, but he was unconscious. So we locked him in the room and went back looking for you."

"I nearly got shot when he showed up."

"What do you think they wanted?"

"Excalibur."

"_Excalibur_?" Gwen squeaked, but he hushed her and she covered her own mouth.

Before she could ask another question, though, Morgana opened the door. And several shots rang out. She slammed the door closed, but of course it made little difference to bullets. She skittered across the floor in a second and flattened herself. Merlin hit the deck, too, reaching out to pull the married couple down, but they had already fallen to the ground and barely paused in their conversation.

"Yeah," Arthur told her. "He had just started to ask me about it, and he wasn't playing around, either."

"But I don't understand; how could they know?"

"And why do they care that much?"

As they talked, they moved so to be further away from the door, which was turning to splinters slowly but surely.

Suddenly Merlin tapped them on the shoulders and diverted their attention. "Sorry to interrupt any conversation that might have been important," he said kindly but distractedly, "but we think we're going to move a bit deeper into the building before they start coming in the door. And shoot us."

He got to his feet, and helped Gwen up too (to Arthur's slight annoyance), and then turned to Morgana, who was already standing and had her gun in her hand. Merlin pulled out his own weapon.

"Okay, which way?" he asked his partner.

"You make the plans," Morgana answered, pushing her heavy tresses, which were pulled into a ponytail, over her shoulder.

"You're the leader," he retorted.

She pointed to where she and Gwen had just been, still with one eye on the door. "That's a main hall. There will be some sort of conference room… Or something large."

"That's the first place they'll look," Merlin said.

Morgana shrugged and gestured to the hall. "I'm the leader."

Merlin shrugged. "Come on," he said to Arthur and Gwen, and they were shuttled down the hall. Gwen was limping slightly, which caused Arthur to look at her leg worriedly. She was supposed to still be taking it easy.

"Don't worry," Merlin told them as Morgana made up the caboose of their train. "We do have backup; they're in a nearby construction site. We just need to wait a bit."

"Like we did?" Arthur asked rather sarcastically, raising his eyebrow. Gwen grabbed his hand, and that shut him up.

"But better," Merlin said with a grin. They went down the hall, past a locked door with a man on the other side banging on it – Morgana's handiwork, no doubt. Further down the hall and past several other closed doors, they came upon the last one—a slightly cracked open door.

Gwen pushed it open and went right inside.

A large room, Arthur noted, larger than his living room. There was a large table in the middle of it, but it was more like a slab—someone had obviously decided to get fancy with the decorating, so the table was solid, with a little ledge at the top, like his counter at home. Chairs were scattered around the table. There were two windows on one wall, rather small.

"Conference room," Merlin said. "Knew it. Lucky."

He crouched down behind the table, checking his gun to make sure it was ready for usage, and Arthur and Gwen crowded behind the table too. Morgana came in the door after them, and then turned to shut it and lock it. "Keep them a few moments," she said, and reached for her belt.

"The window!" Gwen suddenly screeched. Merlin's and Arthur's heads jerked to look. There were several men in view, one of which had a gun pointed at Morgana, about to pull the trigger.

"Morgana!" shouted Merlin, leaping up, all levity gone from his voice. "Get down!"

She started to turn around. A bullet cracked the air, and she fell down.

"No!" shouted Merlin gruffly, turning his gun towards the window and firing off several bullets. The men ducked out of view (and out of reflex, so did Arthur and Guinevere).

Then three pairs of shocked eyes turned back to Morgana, and softened in relief when she looked back at them and started to climb to her feet. Bent double, she rushed back to safety while Merlin covered her by shooting several more times to keep the enemies down.

Morgana reached them and sank down, Merlin following after. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice coated with worry as his eyes were drawn to the red smear that had ripped across her thigh.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and nodded. As more bullets came at them, they all pressed themselves closer to the table. "A scratch," she said, and then laughed humorlessly, though it wasn't funny.

She turned around and shot back at them, barely peeking her head over the tabletop.

A shout made Arthur think that Morgana had hit one. Merlin hadn't, though he shot again. Only a sliver of the men showed, if any at all. A general consternation from the hall made Arthur suspect that the shooters from the lobby were looking for them. Morgana had pulled a cell-phone-like device from her belt and was talking into it.

Looking at Merlin, Morgana said, "Next time, I may let you be the leader." He laughed drily.

Arthur looked at Gwen, who had wide eyes. "You know," he said. "I've always hated battle humor."

Then he took the gun from Merlin. "Here," he said, unable to hold it in for another second. "Wait until they've paused in the shooting… Now." He stood quickly, gaining him a better vantage point to see the men who were crouched down, still thinking that he, too, was bent down. Then he took quick aim, shot, and heard a small shout as he threw himself back on the floor.

Merlin was staring at him in shock.

"Like that," Arthur said.

Morgana swore, a dirty-sounding word. "I know there are men, but we only have a few minutes. Even if they outnumber us…" She was talking into the phone. A tinny sound of a voice making excuses met their ears, and Morgana swore again. The skin was tight around her eyes, and Arthur guessed it was from the pain. From the distracted look on Merlin's face, he thought so too, and he was worried about it.

"They can't find a way in?"

"They are getting closer," Arthur said, tentatively pointing the gun in his hand at the locked door. He hated to think it, but the gun felt comfortable in his hands. He knew it wasn't his, but it felt as though his hands were molded around the weapon.

But he'd never tell Gwen. She'd get the wrong idea.

"Here," said Guinevere suddenly, quietly from behind him, reaching out a pretty brown hand. "Let me."

Morgana looked at Merlin. Merlin looked back at her and shrugged. So Morgana handed over the device and then pressed her hand to her leg, wincing at the pain.

Her voice unexpectedly stronger, Gwen said into it, "You can't find a single way into this building? It doesn't have to be orthodox, you know. You're in a construction site, right? Use it."

A second of silence. Then, the voice on the other end said in a tone of surprise, _"Is that Guinevere?"_

Gwen licked her lips. "Missions," she said, "are all about improvising."

And then she handed the phone back to Morgana, carefully avoiding Arthur's eyes, because she'd knew they'd be hot and angry.

The voice on the other end seemed to be agreeing, and Morgana was gawking at it. "I can't believe you just got him to agree to think for himself," she said with a disbelieving smile, her green eyes twinkling.

Arthur wondered who was on the other line, but then he shrugged and looked back at Gwen. She looked a little ashamed. "Sorry," she mouthed.

He shrugged. "If it helps us." Then he smiled at her and took her hand.

"Um," said Merlin, "can I have my gun back now?"

Arthur blinked. "What? Oh. Yeah. Here." He passed it back to its rightful owner a little reluctantly. Merlin used it to shoot some more.

Morgana kept her gun trained on the door now. "It may take them a while to show, so we should move towards the back of the table… Buy us some time. I only have so much ammo, besides…"

Gwen was putting her curls back up, but then she stopped and cocked her head to the side, her hands still up in the air. "Do you hear something?"

"Bullets," Merlin said, but then he stopped. He heard it too. A roaring sound, like… a motor?

"Shouting," said Morgana, her eyes on the window. "They're shouting."

"More bullets," narrated Merlin, looking surprised as well.

Arthur took a peek at the window, catching a flash of color. He closed his eyes. "Oh, Dear L—"

He didn't finish, because with a final screech and scream, what he saw coming hit the window and the wall crumbled. Everyone could only watch in awe as part of the wall crumpled and then seemed to dissolve with a loud crashing sound as plaster fell to the ground. A large machine was not stopped by the debris, but rolled noisily into the previously enclosed room. And then everyone saw why there had been shouting and why the shooters seemed to have fled—who stands in the way of a wrecking ball?

The man sitting inside popped his head out and looked at the group no longer hiding behind the table. There was really no point anymore.

"It would probably be best to get in," he said in a voice that Arthur could only describe as snotty. "I apologize that it will be slightly crowded, but the glass is thick and it would be quicker." Then he looked down. "It was Guinevere," he said with a nod of his head that for him counted as a smile. "Splendid. At your service." He glanced at the rest of them. "And yours, too."

Arthur didn't even bother to hide his groan. "George," he said, putting his head back in despair.

And then Guinevere said it too, but in a vastly different voice, happy to see the old friend. "George!"

But there was no time for greetings, so all kept their thoughts to themselves and rushed for the large machine that had implanted itself in the now-probably-hazardous building.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** **You know those times when writing feels like ripping out a vitally important organ—in other words: hard and not at all appealing sounding? Yeah. This was one of those times. But I told someone this would get out today. So gosh dog it, it will get out today! What did you think?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Four**

They got Arthur, Gwen, Merlin, and Morgana, all squished into one vehicle, out of the area somehow, and whenever George felt that the gun-toting enemy was away enough ("The rather rude blighters fell behind, beg your pardon, ma'am"), they were all transferred to a low-key vehicle. And then they drove a bit, stopped behind a bridge, and switched cars.

Arthur could only take so much of this. He was beginning to discover his leg and hands burned, and Gwen was holding onto her leg and wincing. Morgana too had her hands on her bleeding thigh, and she seemed to have stopped caring if she got blood on the seat. Merlin was the least patient of all of them. He wasn't injured, but it seemed that being in the same car with three people who were – especially Morgana, unless Arthur missed his guess – made him antsy.

They were taken to the hospital as it got dark outside, but Arthur had to admit that he didn't remember that part really well. He thought he was sleeping, or at least half-sleeping. All he was aware of was his wife's hand in his as they drove and then stop, and then they were separated.

He drifted off around the time he was put on the hospital gurney and didn't remember much for a while.

* * *

><p>Merlin shifted in his seat as he waited for the blond man in the bed to wake up. He would have liked to sit still and unperturbed, because it looked better. But he'd never been able to sit still, so he gave up on a good impression (already muffed his chance, anyway), and fidgeted.<p>

He was curious about this man and his wife. People that could apparently make all of Camelot – the entire organization – drop everything to rescue them in fifteen minutes. People that needed to be rescued in the first place. And Excalibur. What was Excalibur? Why was it important? Why did it sound familiar?

After a while, he gave up on the waiting patiently. He wanted to go check on Morgana, anyway.

But as he stood up to leave the room, he heard a slight grunt from behind him, and turned to see Arthur's eyes flickering open.

"Good morning," he said, quickly striding over to the side of the hospital bed. "Because it is morning now. How are you? Sleep well?"

Arthur looked at him with confused blue eyes, and before answering, let his gaze wander about the room and take everything in. "I'm in a hospital," he said at last.

Merlin smiled tightly. "Very good."

"Was I injured?"

"Not very. Your hands were scraped up a bit, and you seem to have banged your leg against something, but it's only a bruise." Merlin watched as Arthur grunted and sat up, rubbing his no doubt sore leg. He'd seen the bruise; it was a beauty.

"I guess I'm lucky it wasn't a bullet wound," Arthur said. He looked up at Merlin and eyed him critically for a second. "Where's my wife?" he asked at last.

"A different room," Merlin told him. He had his own questions, but he figured that it was only fair to tell the man how his wife was first. "She's fine. She was having some pain with her leg… Looked like an old wound, but it should stop being sore soon. You two got up pretty much unharmed."

Arthur nodded, but that last sentence made his head jerk up and gave him pause for thought. "And Morgana?" he finally asked.

Merlin was pleased that he asked, but he waved the thought away. "She'll be fine. I had a few questions I wanted to ask you." He went back to the chair and dragged it over to the bed, sitting down comfortably. "If you don't mind."

Arthur leaned his head back into the painfully white pillow, pushing his soft hair off of his forehead. "I probably do."

"Who are you? Arthur _what_?"

"I don't know if I want to tell you."

Merlin sighed. "I work for Camelot," he offered. "I was called several hours ago and told that I and Morgana – we often work together – had fifteen minutes to save a man named Arthur and his wife, Guinevere, and that backup would be right behind us after taking a little more time to get ready. So I didn't really have time to ask for background information."

"And now you're curious? Maybe it's on a need-to-know-basis." Arthur smiled tightly. He could sense Merlin getting frustrated. It amused him a little.

"Everyone knows what happened, just not why. Since we broke a building to save you, I have a feeling someone is going to want some answers. And I can't help feeling that your background might explain why you were attacked in the first place."

Arthur licked his lips and didn't say anything.

Merlin looked at the ceiling as though thinking. "Maybe I should check your file." He gave a small grin. "I'm assuming that anyone who can shoot like that and takes being kidnapped so easily has one."

"Can I read yours, then?"

"No."

"That's not fair," Arthur said.

"It's a job benefit," Merlin replied. "So… I'm assuming this has to do with Excalibur?"

It might have been his imagination, but he thought that Arthur went a bit paler. "You heard that," he said.

"I did. I'm not positive what it means though. I've only ever heard of one Excalibur, and…"

"Arthur!" interrupted a new voice. Merlin and Arthur turned to the door, and Merlin stood up out of habit when he saw the ladies in the doorway.

Gwen limped into the room and went to her husband's side. "I see you're alright," she said.

"How's your leg?" he asked her, immediately forgetting that Merlin was even present as he sat up to talk to his wife. She gave him a quick kiss and sat down in the chair Merlin had just been settled in; he moved away a little to let her know that he didn't mind.

"It's fine," she said. "A little sore, but there's no damage. Stop worrying."

Morgana rolled into the room sitting in one of the hospital's wheelchairs. "The staff was very insistent," she told Merlin when he gave her a curious look. "When I'm officially discharged this afternoon, I can start walking around again. Besides," she added, "I am a bit sore."

"Don't strain," Merlin told her. "You might need your leg."

"Yes, mother," she replied with heavy sarcasm, but she smiled. "So what were you two boys talking about before we came in and interrupted?"

"I was being interrogated," Arthur told her.

"I was asking him a few questions concerning his recent kidnapping," Merlin corrected, looking a little annoyed. "He was being stubborn."

Arthur gave a small huff.

"Perhaps you would tell me your last name?" Merlin asked Gwen.

She smiled. "Pendragon. Arthur and Guinevere Pendragon."

"Thank you," Merlin said. "Why were you kidnapped?"

"I'm… not sure," she said, looking at her husband and taking his hand. "I'm really not."

"And you seemed to know George," Morgana said, and Arthur winced.

"You both seemed to know George," Merlin added. "How is that?"

"Why don't you ask him?" Arthur said. And then smiled a little.

Merlin thought he knew well why they didn't ask George. You ask George a question, and you are lucky to get away with just a brass joke. Easily the most boring and stuffy man on the planet, George _scared_ Merlin. Worse than Morgana when she was angry. (And Morgana got _murderous_ when she was angry.)

"Arthur," Gwen said reproachfully. "Let's cooperate."

Arthur sighed and started to shake his head… But then he caught sight of his wife's big doe eyes. _Darn them._ She looked tired and he could bet her leg still hurt a little. Sighing, he looked over at Merlin again. "It's the same Excalibur you're thinking of," he said. "That's what they were after."

"The sword?" Morgana said, her eyebrows creasing. "What does it have to do with a sword?"

"Not just a sword," Merlin said. "Excalibur was some sort of key. It opened something… The Vault of something."

"Emrys," Arthur suggested. "Can anyone overhear us in here?"

Merlin's eyes flickered over the walls and to the door, which he went over and closed. "No," he said. "Camelot often uses this hospital because it's safe."

Arthur sat up further, leaning against the back of his hospital bed. It was actually pretty comfortable. "They were looking for Excalibur, from what they said," he told Merlin and Morgana.

Morgana bit her lip. "But… Excalibur is lost."

"Yes, on a mission gone wrong it was lost as soon as it was found," Arthur said. "Escetia, another undercover operation in opposition with Camelot, was after it as well, but they didn't manage to steal it… However, neither did the operatives from Camelot." He smiled. "That's sort of how the official report went, I believe. I helped write it."

"You were one of the operatives on the mission?" Merlin said.

"You work for Camelot?" Morgana guessed, looking a little excited by the prospect and a little suspicious.

"My wife and I are retired," Arthur said. "We met while working for Camelot and continued working for a year or so after we were married."

"What happened?" asked Merlin.

"I got injured on a mission not too long ago," Gwen answered. "And the mission was a failure. They blamed me, said I needed to learn to improvise."

Arthur was getting a little red in the face from holding in his anger. "It wasn't her fault," he felt the need to tell Merlin and Morgana. "If anyone's, it was mine."

"So you two quit."

"I needed time to recuperate anyway," Gwen said. "And it seemed safer. We got jobs, became civilians."

"And then this happened," Morgana said.

Gwen nodded.

"So why were you attacked? You were obviously involved with the Excalibur mission," Merlin speculated. "But what did they want? Information? Revenge?"

Arthur looked a little uncomfortable. "Possibly Excalibur itself."

"Even though it's missing?" Morgana said. "They think you have it?"

Arthur looked at her. "I imagine they do."

"Why?" asked Morgana suspiciously.

Merlin squinted at Arthur's face, and then gave a tiny smile. "Because he does have Excalibur. And they want it. They want to open this Vault of Emrys… for whatever reason."

"It was a dangerous artifact," Arthur said. "Too dangerous to actually tell anyone what we did with it, so we said it was lost. I don't know how anyone would have found out that I had it. The only people who knew about it were my father and me… and my wife. My father was running surveillance on the mission, and he saw me take it. I didn't tell anyone, nor did Guinevere. And my father couldn't have…"

"Anyone can betray you," Merlin said suddenly, his inane smiling face suddenly more serious than Arthur had seen it yet. He looked a little sad. _He_ knew that anyone could betray you. Willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or not. _Thank you, Freya Bastet and Julius Borden._

"My father is dead," Arthur told him, cocking an eyebrow. "He was killed by some of Odin's thugs about a year and a half ago."

"Oh," said Merlin, looking a little embarrassed.

"Then how did they know? Who could have told them?" Morgana said. "And why? Why do they want the key to the Vault of Emrys?"

She was asking Merlin, for she'd been working with him for a while and had come to the conclusion that whatever the question, he would either know or know who did.

Merlin shrugged. "I'll have to look it up," he said. And looked at Arthur. "Unless you would tell us that information, too?"

He was being polite. That must mean he had learned all he expected to, Arthur decided.

The ex-operative cleared a little. "The Vault of Emrys is legendary place. It's rumored to have the spirit of a very powerful man trapped inside, only able to be summoned out by Excalibur."

"Spirit?" said Morgana. "Like a ghost?"

"No," Arthur said. "Like… magic. Apparently enough power to destroy the world. The legend…" he grunted a little uncomfortably. "It says that the power would go into the person closest to Emrys that's around when it's opened."

"Surely you don't believe that?" said Morgana. "Magic and such?"

"That's the story," Arthur replied.

"I've seen stranger," Gwen said, sticking up for her husband.

"Yes," said Morgana, "but this… Besides, who wants it? Is is Escetia again?"

Arthur shrugged, looking a little tired. "That, I don't know."

"We'll look into it," Merlin said, making towards the door. "Thank you for the information," he added. "That wasn't too painful, was it?" He gave a tiny little half-smile. "And thank you for saving me a trip to George."

Arthur caught the smile before it made it to his face. Gwen squeezed his hand. "When can we go?" she asked.

"You've been discharged from the hospital, so you're free to go, but I'd stick around if I were you," Morgana said. "What with the information you've given us, head quarters might want some more information."

"We'll wait around a while," Gwen said, and Arthur glared at her before he stopped himself. She looked excited and didn't seem to care too much.

"Good choice," Merlin said, smiling widely. She replied with a smile of her own. "You want help?" he asked Morgana.

"You just hold the door," she told him, resolutely pushing on the wheels of her chair. "I can manage."

He laughed and held the door open with a flourish as she pushed herself out of the room. And then he nodded once at Arthur and Gwen and shut the door again, leaving the couple alone.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, how was that chapter? We're getting a bit more into the story now, I'm sure you can tell. And yes, I made Merlin and Emrys separate entities. It'll make more sense later I hope.**

**Thank you, unsigned reviewers! It's so kind of you to review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Five**

Gwen waited until the door was closed behind the other two before reaching out and taking Arthur's hands. They were still bandaged.

"So, what happened to your hands?"

He looked down as though noticing them just now. "The bandages make them look worse. I think I scraped them climbing that fence, and I hit my leg 'escaping'… Hardly deserving of a hospital bed." He grinned a little. "I'm not that delicate."

"I don't think they had anywhere else to put us after we fell asleep. Don't worry. The hospital will probably boot us out soon enough." Her smile was gentle. "Where do you think they'll send us? Not back to the house."

Arthur felt suddenly irritated and he sat a little straighter. "They don't need to send us anywhere. We can manage by ourselves."

She ignored the hard edge to his voice and dropped his hand, giving him a shocked look. "Arthur, they aren't going to let this go now that they've got their teeth into this! You know how they are. We forfeited the right to tell them to leave us alone when we made that call."

"We don't take orders from them!"

Gwen's lip twisted. "I know…" she said as tactfully as she could, "that you are still a little sore over the way last mission went…"

Arthur shook his head. _Sure,_ he was sore, but that wasn't the whole point. "It's _dangerous _to be associated with them! People get hurt… Last time, you were injured, and we nearly died because I didn't cover you correctly. And they tell us to learn to _improvise_? We won't do it again."

Gwen tried to be sympathetic, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was, "We probably will…"

"We won't."

"I bet we will."

"No."

"Come on," Gwen wheedled, rocking back and grinning. "You sort of miss it, too."

Arthur shut his jaw tightly like a stubborn child. He didn't smile. "I do not."

"You do, and you're jealous of Merlin for being part of it." She poked him gently and playfully, subtly changing the subject. "Otherwise you would not have been so mean to him."

"Guine_vere_!" Arthur's mouth gaped as though shocked at her audacity. "I am not jealous."

"Then why don't you like him?"

"He's… arrogant."

"I don't think so…" Gwen said, tilting her head thoughtfully. "Confident, maybe."

Arthur snorted. "Anyway, I don't dislike him. I just don't like him yet."

Gwen shrugged. "Maybe he's the sort that grows on you."

"Maybe." Arthur doubted it. "But he's not the point. We'll get released from here, and we'll find a hotel or something to stay at for a few days. We don't need Camelot's orders."

Gwen sighed. Arguing with Arthur was pointless sometimes. He _did_ think he was always right. "Alright, dear," she said, a little disappointed.

* * *

><p>"Wait up!"<p>

Merlin stopped mid-stride, nearly losing his balance, and turned around to face Morgana. She was a little slower with her wheelchair, but he waited for her to catch up. Eventually, though, she gave up and pushed herself to her feet, pulling down her shirt and limping a little as she walked towards him.

Merlin cast a glance down at her thigh. She had her normal pants back on… New ones, of course, since the other pair had been ruined. "You didn't take your bandages off, did you?" he said a little concernedly, since her pants _were_ a little tight and he didn't see a bulge where the bandages should be.

"They're there," she assured him, and he pulled his gaze back to her eyes. She looked naked without her gun. She probably felt like it, too. He knew he did.

He nodded and kept walking, letting her follow at her own pace.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To research the Vault of Emrys. I want to know about it if we're going to be dealing with it or traveling there. Gaius will know about it, maybe even where I can find it…" He rubbed his chin absentmindedly as he thought. "I might have to turn to Kilgharrah."

Morgana was by his side now, still limping slightly, having left the wheelchair behind. The hospital staff would probably be incensed, but Morgana just didn't care about their rules. Served them right, telling her what to do.

She thought about it for a second, then cleared her throat and said, "You know, Merlin, we did well today."

"Sure we did. No one died. That's always a plus." He looked at her. "Though we need to work on getting fewer injuries next time. Three out of four is not good."

She shrugged. "We were outnumbered. Any other group would have made it four out of four, but you seem to repel bullets. It's strange."

"All the same," he said, turning a corner.

"Maybe we should just turn this in to headquarters," Morgana suggested. "They can decide if any action is necessary."

"Geoffrey practically _is_ headquarters, Morgana. Besides, we're already involved. He'd put us on the job anyway."

"I suppose."

Merlin looked at her in surprise. Usually she was all for any plan that involved action. "You okay? Does your leg hurt?"

Morgana waved a hand in dismissal. "No, it's not that. I just don't think we should run off half-cocked is all."

Merlin grinned. "I thought you liked that sort of thing."

"No, I don't." She sighed. "These people are dangerous. We don't even know what they want."

"Excalibur," Merlin said. "Power. The spirit of Emrys. Money? Something we don't know of? Arthur Pendragon?"

She shrugged for what felt like the fiftieth time. "It just gives me a bad feeling, us going and working on this." She got those bad feelings sometimes. Most people ignored them, but she just couldn't let them go.

"Don't worry," Merlin said, and stepped towards her, reaching to take her hand and comfort her. Morgana smiled slightly as his hand touched her, and she got ready for him to speak those words he always seemed to have ready-made, the ones that could comfort even Gaius, the biggest worry-wart she'd ever met.

"Ah," said a new voice. "There you two are."

Merlin dropped her hand with the tiniest, almost invisible eye roll.

"Agravaine," he greeted the older Camelot operative decently.

Agravaine's eyes flickered over him, and the dark-haired man smiled a bit slimily. Merlin bit his cheek. Agravaine annoyed him. Then the senior agent's gaze turned to the young woman. "I heard you were hurt?" he said to her with concern in his voice, looking her up and down.

There was one reason Merlin didn't like him. He always looked at Merlin's partner/co-worker like he hadn't much enjoyed his dinner and she was the dessert that would make up for it. It made him shudder. Agravaine was twenty years older than her if he was a day.

"Not seriously." At least she never seemed interested in him. Merlin didn't think he would be able to take _that_. But there was no chance _that_ would ever happen.

"There was trouble?"

"Yes, a bit," Merlin told him. "But everyone got out in one piece."

"I'm glad to hear it. Did you rescue them?"

"Yes, they're in the farthest room down that way," said Morgana, pointing. "They're fine. Do you remember an Arthur and Guinevere Pendragon?"

Agravaine nodded. "Yes, they used to work for Camelot. Eighteen months ago was the last time I saw them, I think. Is that them?"

Merlin nodded grudgingly. "Is Gaius here?" Gaius used to work for the hospital – that's why Camelot had such good access to it – but he'd quit years ago. Sometimes he still preferred being here to being at base.

"No, he's back at base."

"Thanks," said Merlin, and walked away, nearly dragging Morgana along with him.

Morgana looked a little surprised. "Rude," she commented, pulling her arm away.

Merlin sent a disgusted look back over his shoulder. "Sorry," he said. "Let's just go see Gaius."

He kept walking down the hall, his head down, and Morgana had little choice but to follow him.

* * *

><p>Agravaine walked past Merlin and Morgana regretfully and kept walking down the white halls of the hospital, walking down several halls, and right past the room Morgana had indicated. And if he pressed his ear to the door for a second before going past, no one saw.<p>

He finally made it to the elevator and pressed the up button, waiting patiently for it to arrive. At last with a _ding_ the doors slid open and he stepped inside with the only other passenger—a bundled-up woman with large eyes.

The door closed again.

"They're here alright," Agravaine said out loud, still staring at the door to the elevator.

The woman's eyes didn't flicker to him. "Excellent. We'll break in and take them, then."

"Why not wait?" suggested Agravaine.

She did look at him, but only for a second. "Explain."

"I heard Merlin and Morgana talking. They plan on seeking out the Vault. Why not let them do our work for us?"

The blonde woman smiled thinly. "I like that idea. You'll have to keep us informed."

"It would be a pleasure." Agravaine paused, swallowing. He didn't want to push her too far. "Just remember our deal," he said. "Your plan won't hurt Morgana. She'll be protected."

Morgause's sleek smile spoke of hatred. "Don't worry," she said. "My sister will not be harmed. As agreed."

They reached the desired floor and the elevator doors opened. Agravaine gave a vague nod at nothing in sight and stepped out of the compartment.

* * *

><p>It was a short car ride to headquarters. Morgana had to get released from the hospital first; otherwise they wouldn't let her go. They didn't want her to leave at first, but both Merlin and Morgana were so insistent that finally she was dismissed and Merlin and Morgana climbed into the same car they'd arrived in.<p>

Once there, they stepped inside. It was an office building just like any other in appearance, squat and fat and not much fun to look at. But the casual observer didn't know that the roof had a laser security system, and almost anyone inside could kill you at least five different ways. That was plenty of fun in Merlin's opinion. No need for more.

They went inside.

Gaius was in his office. He greeted them enthusiastically. "Merlin, my boy. How are you?"

"In between missions, seems like," Merlin answered, giving the older man a hug.

"Morgana," Gaius said, hugging her too for good measure. "How are the martial arts coming along?"

"Swimmingly."

"We came for some help with research," Merlin said. "I figured you'd have something in your books."

Gaius hummed accommodatingly, walking towards the door near the back of his office, where the small library they'd collected over the years could be found. When he wasn't running the tech stuff, Geoffrey could usually be found in there. Merlin hadn't been working as a field operative for very long, but he'd known Gaius and Geoffrey for years. Longer than he'd known Morgana, anyway. He hadn't met her until about a year ago—their first mission together had almost been their last, what with Morgause trying to convince Morgana to switch sides the entire time.

Thinking about it, he sent an absentminded smile towards Morgana. She was strong, able to reject her sister's ideas like she had. Morgana smiled back warmly without knowing why.

"What are you looking for?" Gaius asked, opening the door.

"Information on a place called the Vault of Emrys."

"Does this have much to do with that rescue mission earlier today?"

"It does," Merlin agreed. "Looks like we might run into it a bit from now on."

Gaius nodded and went into the room. Morgana and Merlin followed him in.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I did not like this chapter, because I'm ready for the action again! Ah, well. Now, please do review and let me know what you think of my story. It is greatly appriciated.** **(Did I mispell that again? I think I did... it's one of those words that I never get right.)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Six**

"Geoffrey," Merlin greeted him when he walked in.

Geoffrey looked up from his desk, where he had a thick book opened. He pushed back his chair a bit so he could stand as Morgana followed Merlin into Geoffrey's office. "Merlin, Morgana," he greeted them, and they both nodded.

Then Geoffrey took a good look at Merlin's face. "Oh, no," said the overweight old man. "No, not something else. The answer is no, Merlin."

Merlin smiled tightly and leant on Geoffrey's desk, getting closer as though to make his point more clearly. Morgana sat in the available chair on the other side of Geoffrey's desk.

"I think," said Merlin, "that you need to send me to the Vault of Emrys."

"And me," Morgana supplied, and Merlin glanced at her for a second before shrugging.

"And Morgana, if she's healed enough."

"I am," Morgana said defensively.

Geoffrey sighed. He was used to Merlin knowing everything he, an erudite man, didn't, but he didn't have to like Merlin always running in with strange requests. "And why do I need to do that?"

"I've done some research… Well, Gaius did most of it. I learned that the Vault of Emrys is some nearly-mythical place that is supposed to contain the spirit and power of the great Emrys. With me so far?"

"Yes, but that's just legend, Merlin," Geoffrey said. "We don't even know if there _was_ a great Emrys."

"Geoffrey, why would someone murder two people that are very difficult to pin down and put themselves at risk if it was a completely made up story?"

"Is this about the mission you just went on?"

"Geoffrey," said Merlin seriously, "I think Arthur can open this mysterious vault. And I think Escetia – if it is them – knows this. I think a retired member of Camelot will be in danger if we don't go, and I think that if they get him and their key, then they might have this power or whatever it is the Vault actually contains. And I think that would be bad."

Geoffrey looked at Merlin's serious young face for several moments before sighing. "Why should I send you two? You just came off a mission, you're tired. I should send someone else to do what he can. Your tip is appreciated…"

Geoffrey sat back down again, looking content, like he'd won, but Merlin growled. "No, Geoffrey, let it be us. Anyone else would have to be appointed by all the leaders. That could take forever. You need to bypass that… Like you did when you sent us to save Arthur and Guinevere."

"I'm probably in trouble for that as it is," said Geoffrey. "I'm sorry." He didn't really look sorry, though. "You need to learn you can't assign yourself to a mission."

Merlin cast a despairing look at Morgana across the dim, sparsely furnished room. "Morgana, help," he said, putting his forehead in his hand.

Morgana sighed and stood up. The pain was nearly gone from her leg now. She'd been patched up well.

"Geoffrey," she said. "The Vault of Emrys is an old legend, isn't it? Hardly believable. Actually, it's sort of silly."

"Thanks," Merlin said sarcastically from his head's spot in his palm.

"But I think," Morgana continued undeterred, "that we both know that someone needs to go. Especially if Escetia – or whoever it is – thinks this is worthy of a full-on shoot-out and a fake police station. But Geoffrey, it's too bad it's so silly. Because wouldn't you feel stupid telling the others how you need to send people to go after the legendary magic-man's spirit? Really? Wouldn't it be easier to say that we sort of… forgot to ask them?"

Geoffrey sighed as he looked at the curvy woman with the tilted eyebrow in front of him. "Why do you two insist on assigning yourselves to missions?"

"Oh," said Merlin. "And we'll probably need to convince Arthur to come to so we can find the Vault."

Geoffrey put his hand to his head. "You young people," he said, shaking his head.

* * *

><p>Arthur was peeved. Actually, he was downright annoyed.<p>

He knew he was in trouble the moment Merlin stepped into the hospital room, but all he'd said was, "Can we go now?"

Merlin had coughed. "Technically, I suppose you could. But I wouldn't suggest it."

Arthur had been adamant that he was not going to run off on any fool's errand to the Vault. If they wanted directions, he said, he'd say what he remembered, but he didn't know how to get there. But he was not going to help find it.

He wasn't quite sure how Merlin won him over. It had something to do with the fact that Merlin could not aim a gun. "And," Merlin had said, "if Morgana and I fail, I imagine the people who tried to kill you will go after you and your wife again."

"Don't bring Gwen into this!" Arthur had insisted, standing. It was hard to be intimidating in a hospital gown. He managed somehow. But Gwen didn't seem to mind being brought into anything—she had the nerve to look excited.

"Besides, where do you plan on going that's safe?"

Basically, now Arthur was going with them.

And so was Gwen. That part was her idea, needless to say.

So Merlin had told Arthur to get dressed, said thank you, and left the room.

"I think I'm beginning to hate him," Arthur said to his wife, pulling on his cleaned clothes.

"Come on, Arthur," she said, standing on tip toes to give him a swift kiss on the cheek. "You know you're a little excited."

"Excited? We could be killed! Gwen, you should stay with Camelot instead of coming."

Gwen laughed. "I'm not going to miss this, Arthur! We've both been practically going through _withdrawals _since the relaxation wore off…"

"Perhaps you have, but I certainly haven't."

"Liar," said Gwen.

Instead of arguing, Arthur suddenly pulled his wife close and put her head on his chest. "What if you get hurt again, Gwen?"

"I won't. We're better than that. You have to trust me, Arthur. If you don't trust me, why'd you marry me?"

She looked so sweet with her big brown eyes. You wouldn't know that the woman behind them could save the world if she decided that was her mission.

Arthur kissed her.

* * *

><p>Morgana came back later and led them out of the hospital and to Camelot's building.<p>

"It's been a while," she said as they came in the door. "Have we changed much?"

"Doesn't look like it," Arthur said, looking around. He watched where Morgana was heading. "Why are we heading down to the basement?"

"You're going to meet Kilgharrah," she told Arthur.

"Who?"

The door to the basement opened when Morgana inserted the key and turned it, and all three of them stepped inside and went down the stairs.

"Merlin's already down here," Morgana said. "He was just getting everything set up."

Arthur looked at Gwen. She shrugged.

At last they were in the basement, a dimly lit stone place that was clean and dry. The lights needed changing, but other than that, the place appeared comfortable. The floor was rubber.

"Why is the floor rubber?" he asked.

"Stops electricity," Merlin responded from the other side of the room. He was sitting at a desk with a laptop open in front of him. The computer was hooked up to something electronic, a flat panel with flashing lights and switches and everything.

"What is that?" Arthur asked, coming forward and pointing. "I've never seen one before."

Merlin grinned proudly. "It's pretty new. This… is Kilgharrah. It can do anything… I think it can tell the future sometimes. I just plug my laptop in and it's like nothing else." He looked almost misty eyed as he looked over the machinery.

Morgana rolled her eyes. "Excuse him," she said to Arthur and Gwen. "He gets like this around technology. We don't know what's wrong yet."

"It can tell the weather!"

Arthur had to laugh at the pouting expression on the smaller man's face. "How does it help us?"

"You tell me what you remember about the Vault. You said you were there?"

"That's where Excalibur was stored," Arthur said. "But I don't remember how we got there. I was so dizzy and overtired I'm surprised I remember Excalibur."

"That's okay," said Merlin with a nod. "Just tell me what you can remember about the place. I tell you, Kilgharrah can locate it."

Arthur saw the light in Merlin's eyes and had to struggle not to grin. After all, he didn't like Merlin, right?

"Alright," Arthur said. "Alright, we'll do that."

"Good!" Merlin rubbed his hands together and cracked his knuckles with some glee before putting his fingers over the keyboard. "Let's work magic."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: A shorter chapter. Sorry, it's been so long since I updated. I had to force myself… Review, please?**


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Seven**

While Merlin and Arthur worked with Kilgharrah, Morgana started a conversation with Gwen.

"I heard you're coming too," she said.

"Arthur wouldn't leave me behind," Gwen replied, nodding. "He'd like to. But he won't."

"You won't let him?" Morgana guessed.

Gwen shook her head. "I haven't had any excitement since we quit. It's been killing me."

"Whose idea was it?"

"His, but I wasn't against it," Gwen said with a shrug. "My leg was pretty bad at the time. It took a while to heal completely. While it did, I kept myself busy learning how to be a housewife. But it got boring."

Morgana shuddered at the very thought. No excitement? Just sitting around, cooking and cleaning? If she ever got married, her husband would just have to understand that she had to run around and do secret missions in between meals. She'd just have to find the right man. When she thought that, she let her eyes flicker over to Merlin, who was bending over his laptop with a rapturous expression on his face. "I bet it did," she said.

"Don't get me wrong," Gwen said, "I liked it. I liked being able to cook for my husband and get interested in a novel—I never had time before. I met new people and all. I liked having a clean house."

"But after a while, I'm sure it felt like you were going crazy and trapped."

Gwen giggled. "A little. You understand what I mean though? It's nice to be able to take care of your man, but it's also nice to go infiltrate buildings."

"Well, I haven't got a man at the moment," Morgana admitted. Alvarr had been so long ago— was it ten months now? But after she found out about that ratty haired blonde he was seeing (which she had to admit, she'd been stupid for missing), she'd felt ready to swear off boys forever. "But I get it." And she did, sort of. She could see that being a cozy way of living: get up in the morning, go off to work together, infiltrate that building together, and go home and eat the dinner she'd left to slow-cook. Or that he'd left to cook. He might be a better cook than her…

Just then, her cell phone went off, vibrating in her pocket. "One moment," she said to Gwen, who nodded kindly.

Morgana stepped off to the side, pulling out her phone – it was one of those just used for calls and texts, without internet or email, similar to the kind Gwen herself had – and pressing it to her ear. "Hello?" She paused. "Yes," she said, and nodded to herself as she unconsciously began to pace while she listened and talked. "That's not very fast, though… I understand, but don't you think you could… No? But what if it's not in a place where we can…" She paused and listened. "Merlin can!" she protested. "Okay, I'll tell him. You could have told him in person," she added, and smirked. "Coward. He's going to _love _that. Bye, Geoffrey."

She hit the off button and put the phone away.

"That was Geoffrey," she called to Merlin.

"What did he want?" Merlin responded, not looking up. "Hold on, I think this is right. A picture… does this look right?" He pointed the last words at Arthur, pointing at something that had appeared on his screen.

Arthur bent over to look. "Looks like it," he said. "I saw it from the other side…" He narrowed his eyes. "But the right kind of tree—can you get a better look at that rock?"

Merlin magnified it.

"That's it," Arthur said confidently.

"How sure are you?" Merlin asked him.

Arthur shrugged. "The percent's in the high nineties."

"Only chance we've got then," Merlin said. Then he swiveled his legs around so he was facing Morgana. "What was it Geoffrey wanted?"

"To tell us about our transportation."

"I thought I was flying us."

"Apparently we can't just temporarily borrow a helicopter or airplane and 'forget' to tell headquarters about it…" Morgana said. "We're driving. We can get a car."

Merlin nodded. "We can reach this place by car, but it will take a little longer. It's in the country. Luckily. I know you don't like my driving, but with your leg, I'll have to…"

"Oh, Geoffrey's… uh, given us a driver."

"He assigned someone to be our driver for this trip?"

"Apparently," Morgana said drily, fingering the phone in her pants pocket.

"Who?"

Morgana cleared her throat.

* * *

><p>"Good morning, sirs and madams!" a chipper voice nearly shouted as the man stood solemnly with his back straight and his head up.<p>

Merlin took the red handkerchief out his pocket, held it in his hands for a second and looked at it very intently for a moment, as if he was wondering if it was possible to murder someone with it. (The answer, incidentally, was yes—though he hadn't actually killed anyone with it – yet.) Then he put it back up and looked at Morgana, as resigned as a man who had learned that his inevitable death was incoming. "This is revenge," he said. "This is revenge, pure and simple. Geoffrey should be above such things."

Arthur stopped as they walked towards the waiting car and flinched.

Gwen, on the other hand, picked up the pace, went over to the man standing next to the driver's seat, and hugged him. "George!" she said happily as she beamed at the man she'd worked with so many times.

Morgana smiled easily at him, ignoring Merlin for the moment. "Hey, George."

"Are we ready to go then?" George asked, laying his hand on his the car behind him.

Arthur swallowed. "Well, we need to get Excalibur first."

"I need to print out a copy of our instructions," Merlin said.

"You already have," Morgana said mercilessly. "They're in your pocket."

Merlin chuckled nervously. "Oh, yeah!" He turned to Arthur. "Um, where is Excalibur?"

Arthur looked back at the building that housed this section of Camelot and looked back at Merlin. "I'll… go get it."

"You aren't certified to be in there alone," Merlin told him seriously. "I'll come too. Be right back, Morgana, Mrs. Pendragon!"

Morgana rolled her eyes. Gwen barely seemed to notice. "So, George," she was saying. "How is your father feeling?"

Merlin and Arthur beat a hasty retreat into the building.

"Revenge," Merlin told Arthur as they went, shaking his head.

Arthur grudgingly chuckled. "It's going to be a dull ride," he said.

"I'd rather have any other driver… I'd even take Gwaine's driving to avoid the jokes."

Arthur had been around long enough to remember Gwaine. "Well," he said seriously, "that might be going a bit far, don't you think?"

"Is Excalibur really inside Camelot?"

"Yeah," Arthur said, heading for the elevator. "They haven't given my old room away, have they? I used to stay here in between missions and such. They weren't supposed to until I moved my things out, and I never did." He hit the down button, into the floors below the ground. He and Merlin adopted the mandatory pose of people riding elevators who didn't know each other too well: hands clasped, face turned upward looking at the lights above the door, backs straight.

"How would I know?" Merlin said. "I only got promoted to running missions a little while ago."

"Doesn't matter too much," Arthur said. "I'd hate to burst into someone's room, is the only thing, especially if they're in it. They probably haven't found it anyway." He felt his stomach move as the elevator stopped and waited for the doors to open.

About that time, Merlin got a call and had to take it. "Hey, Geoffrey," he started, and then began a chorus of "mm-hmm"s.

Arthur went out the elevator and down the hall, and Merlin followed him. The hall was dark and the floor was carpeted; Arthur's shoes were nearly silent against it. Merlin was still mumbling behind him. Then there was the sound of two men breathing. Everything else was silent. Silence made Arthur nervous. Silence made him paranoid. He started thinking things that didn't make sense. Things like how well he really knew the man behind him, and how easy it would be to jump out at people walking down this hall… Things that kept him on guard. Kept his body on high alert.

Merlin seemed to be immune to it, though. "Sure," he was saying. "If Agravaine asks, if anyone asks you can go ahead and tell them… We're not technically keeping it a secret, if we did that… Right."

Arthur reached his old room. The door was plain, with just a number pad by the side.

"Locked?" Merlin asked, looking up from his phone call.

"Should be," Arthur said. He tried the knob. It was. So he reached over the number pad and typed in the old number. If they'd reassigned the room, the lock code would be different too. However, when he'd pressed the numbers, there was a snapping sound from inside the door, and Arthur could turn the knob. "Oh, good," he commented, opening the door. "Come on in," he said as he stepped inside.

"Sure, okay. Yeah, and tell Gaius thanks from me too. Bye." Merlin hung up his phone. "Gaius is the one who got the car," he told Arthur as he stepped inside. "Geoffrey got the driver."

"So we know who to file a complaint against," Arthur joked, stepping into the room. He'd never admit it, but he'd missed this place—it was a place that made him think of calm and relief. After all, most of the times he'd come in here had been after a nerve-wracking experience, when he hadn't slept in twenty-four hours, and he would collapse exhausted into the small bed and sleep for hours. Even after he and Gwen had been married, since she hadn't asked to be assigned to a room for rest and recuperation, he would just bring her in and give her the bed while he fell onto the couch or sometimes even the floor.

"Either they cleaned it up or you are a neat man," Merlin said, looking around.

"Never had time to mess it up. All I did in here was sleep." Arthur went over to the bed and knelt down. "Here."

Arthur pushed the bed away from the wall and revealed a small door in the wall with another keypad. Merlin blinked.

"Do all the rooms have those? I might need to ask for a room…"

"I don't know," Arthur admitted. "The walls are thick enough." He turned so his back was in front of the safe and pressed in more numbers. It popped open and Arthur reached inside. It wasn't a deep space, but it was wide—wide enough to stash a sword.

Arthur pulled Excalibur out first.

"Short, isn't it?" Merlin asked. "I thought it was a sword."

"Looks more like a long knife, I know," Arthur said. "It's a short sword. Don't complain. It's easily portable. I can keep it in my jacket if I don't bend over." It was about the length of his torso. He looked around the room. "If I left a belt in here, I can put it around my chest and keep Excalibur there…" He began wandering around the room looking for what he needed.

"Why don't I hold onto it?" Merlin said. "Since it's my mission and you don't want to be a part of it, isn't that right?"

"You aren't wearing a jacket," Arthur replied drily.

"Oh," Merlin said, and grinned knowingly.

Arthur figured he'd worry about Excalibur in a second and went back to the Vault, pulling out the next thing. "Ah, I missed this," he admitted, and slipped the ring on his finger.

"A ring?"

"Not just any ring," Arthur said. "It was a gift from my father... It's saved my life more times than once."

Merlin looked confused but Arthur didn't give him a chance to press the point, because he shut the safe door quite finally and the moment to ask passed.

* * *

><p>Within minutes, they were in the car and driving.<p>

George, Arthur reflected, was the sort of person that you expected to drive well below the speed limit and simply turn up his nose at anyone who had a problem with that. Someone who probably kept his nose in the air while driving anyway. A careful man with careful habits and in no hurry to get anything done—and yet, unless Arthur missed his guess, he was the sort of person you would expect to be everywhere on time anyway. He was just that sort.

And yet in reality he drove like a madman out of hell.

Arthur kept a firm grip on his stomach as they sped down the road, taking sharp curves and not slowing down when they should. Gwen too looked nauseous, and Morgana kept blinking too much, like she wanted to keep her eyes shut. Merlin looked unaffected—possibly, Arthur recalled, because he admitted to being a poor driver himself. But Merlin did look ill when George started trying to make small talk and jokes.

Merlin was just waiting for George to tell the one about the chicken crossing the road. He'd already made that joke about "brassing" a question, and since the answer was no, he would be "varnishing" (instead of vanishing).

To make it worse, he then laughed at it.

Merlin respected George for his brains and his ability to swallow any improbable thing you threw at him with a nod and a "at your service" on his lips. But he also wanted to strangle him occasionally. (Or hit him with brass knuckles, as he would say if he were George and—oh no. Now he was doing it too. No brass jokes!)

"George, pay attention to the road," he finally said. "Tell me the jokes later. The others are looking green."

George looked a little hurt, but he nodded.

They were racing through the forest now, on a gravelly road that cut right through it. The Vault's position was about an hour away, Merlin guessed, judging from the constant looks he took at the directions. Merlin was the navigator, and sitting in the passenger seat. The other three were in the back—Gwen, the smallest, was squished between her husband and Morgana.

Merlin finally turned his mind to what would be waiting for them at the Vault. Escetia? If so, who? And what would they find there? He wondered if the legends were true. If they weren't, why the violence on their adversary's part?

For the first time in a long time, he felt a prick of conscience for bringing Morgana along and putting her in danger. She was still recovering. Usually he knew he would watch after her, and she would watch his back. But this time they had two other people with them. Gwen and Arthur both had guns, now, but they were still technically civilians. And Arthur had Excalibur. But that might prove to be more of a hindrance than help if they ran into anyone murderous with a thirst for Emrys-power.

Morgana could take care of herself if she had to, he reminded himself. More than once. And so could Arthur and Guinevere.

Merlin took a small drink from the water bottle by his side, and then looked ahead and squinted.

"That car is in our lane," he commented in calm confusion.

And with those words, the whole horrible thing began.

George looked confused. Everyone in the back seat sat up straight and peered out the door. The car was indeed in their lane, with no apparent intention of stopping, and coming on fast.

They couldn't veer off the road. There were trees. But this was a nice, well-built car—neither would come out of a collision in one piece.

"Swerve!" Merlin ordered, and George, eyes wide, immediately pulled the car into the wrong road.

The oncoming car, getting closer, switched with them.

"They mean to hit us!" Arthur cried from the back. Merlin and Gwen immediately pulled out their guns. Merlin hadn't even put down his water bottle, and it crackled as he clenched it tightly.

George tried again. It was no good. They followed. There was perhaps three seconds to collision. The windows were dark on the other car—they couldn't tell if the driver was drunk or mad.

Two seconds. George at last didn't look stuffy, just terrified. He hit the brakes. Merlin was too shocked to even break out in sweat.

One second.

And then the other car swerved and screeched as it, too, hit the brakes.

The big, navy blue car skidded past the black one George was driving, and for just a second Merlin thought he could see through the tinted windows. Was that shape holding something up?

They didn't even have time to be relieved.

Because as the car went past, a sharp cracking sound echoed in their ears and the shattering of glass reverberated in the road. Two windows crashed to pieces due to the bullet, and George slumped, his hands going limp at the wheel. His head lolled forward.

"George!" Merlin screamed as the car, with George's foot falling off the brake, began to head off the road and into the trees.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ahem. And that's known as a cliffhanger. **

**Don't kill me. But do review. **

**- all brass jokes came from a George the Manservant tumblr, because yes, he does have fans. I didn't think them up - **

**Self-promotion here, feel free to ignore: I am working on another AU story—a Reverse!AU. "X Marks the Man." If you like AUs… **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hey. So, I'm an idiot. I forgot to put a pretty important part in last chapter, and had to go back and add it the next day. Excalibur wasn't all Arthur took out of that Vault; he also had a special sort of ring, which he put on. Okay?**

**WARNING: Slight violence towards poor Merlins and a bit of death… Also, possible typos!**

* * *

><p><strong>Title:<strong> The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Eight**

_"George!" Merlin screamed as the car, with George's foot falling off the brake, began to head off the road and into the trees._

Merlin unbuckled so fast he hit his hand against the dashboard, and then threw himself across to the driver's seat, planting one foot right between George's knees and trying to find the brake while his hand pulled the wheel, getting them back onto the road.

Gwen screamed, and she and Morgana ducked in case of more gunfire. Arthur couldn't slouch with Excalibur in his jacket, but he slunk down, preparing for a crash.

The car skidded a little, perpendicular to the road but at least upright, and Merlin didn't take his foot off the brake despite the complaining noise the car was making.

They stopped moving at last, and Merlin ripped the keys from the ignition and got down as fast as he could.

"George!" Arthur called from the back. "They hit him! He needs help!"

Merlin looked up, taking in George's wound and his open eyes. He needed a miracle. "It's too late!" Merlin called back.

"He's dead? _George_?" That was Gwen. She didn't sit up, though.

Arthur sat up just enough to tilt his head back and look out the back window. "They stopped!" he called. "Someone's getting out!"

Morgana copied his pose, and her voice shook just slightly as she said, "Merlin! It's Morgause!"

Merlin's heart thudded. He thought of a word that was perfect for the situation they were in now, but Gwen and Morgana were present.

Arthur again: "Agravaine's with her!"

Merlin swallowed. He remembered… Geoffrey's phone call. What had he told the old man? _"Sure. __If Agravaine asks, if anyone asks you can go ahead and tell them…" _Well, three guesses as to what they were after.

"Please tell me," he said, "that she has a gun to his head?"

"No, seems to be of his own free will," Arthur said.

"That creep," Merlin muttered, and grabbed the water bottle next to him, somehow still in place. With the other hand, he clenched the instructions to the Vault.

"Getting closer," Arthur said, pulling out his gun. "They're armed. What are we going to do?"

"Morgana's the leader," said Merlin.

"Not this time," Morgana replied.

Merlin cast another glance at George's corpse. He'd completely detested the man, of course, but he'd been such a steady figure. All those jokes. If George could be shot, they all could.

Well, Agravaine would pay for it. Somehow.

"They'll have more men," Merlin said. "So get ready." He didn't pull out his own gun. His hands were full.

Gwen pointed her gun at the window when she saw a shadow approaching, but it wasn't her door that was ripped open first. Merlin's passenger door was violently jerked open and the man was pulled out of his seat, still clutching water and paper, and pulled in front of the man as he opened Gwen's door and pulled the gun out of her hand.

Morgana tried to open the other door and run for it, but her bad leg slowed her down slightly. Agravaine had her in his arms suddenly, trying to calm her, and she made a disgusted noise and punched him. Agravaine moved back, startled, and Morgana crouched, ready for him. She was skilled in martial arts, as she told him time and time again. But hands, no matter how deadly, were no match for guns, and one click next to her head made her surrender.

"Hey!" Merlin protested, seeing her predicament, and when he tried to move he was thrust painfully into the car. By the time he'd blinked the world back into focus, Gwen was wrapped firmly in someone's arms, and Arthur had his hands up as he leaned stiffly against the car. Morgause herself kept her gun aimed in his direction.

The four were disarmed.

"Check the one in the car," Morgause, the blonde… _witch_ said.

"He's dead," Merlin spat, keeping one eye on the man who looked ready to throw him into the car again.

"Is he?" asked Morgause. "Check, Agravaine."

Still looking at Morgana, Agravaine did so and confirmed what Merlin said. "Through the heart," he informed her. Morgana glared at him.

"I bet you think you're clever," Morgana said, "tricking a few people. Apparently slime's not just in your hair."

Merlin wanted to tell her to shut up, but he didn't. Agravaine actually looked hurt as he protested, "You don't understand… I had to…"

"Shut up, Agravaine," Morgause said with distaste. She looked around at the four captives. "Now," she said. "Who has the information and key to the Vault of Emrys?"

Merlin didn't let himself pause to think. He took the cap off his water bottle before anyone noticed and splashed the remains of it down the instructions in his hand, watching the ink begin to run.

"_Oof_!" Merlin gasped as the man behind him shoved him into the car. The paper fell to the ground, and Merlin ran his foot over it, pushing the paper into the grass.

"What was that?" snapped Morgause.

"He destroyed some paper," the man said. He cursed at Merlin and hit him, backhanded him across his ear and cheek. Merlin's head was thrown to the side, but he didn't make a noise.

Morgause tried to get the paper from underneath Merlin's foot, but he dug down and gritted his teeth.

"Merlin…!" someone warned him. He didn't know who it was, because before he could process it, Morgause nodded at the man holding him and Merlin was struck again, this time in the side. The shock made him take his weight off the foot, and Morgause stood up triumphantly.

"Instructions," she said, looking at the format of the page. Her eyes narrowed. Merlin held his breath. "Completely unreadable," she said. Merlin sighed in relief and sagged a little.

With a hand wave from Morgause, Merlin was lifted up and then turned around and practically laid on his back against the car's hot metal. Looking to one side, all Merlin could see was the cracked windshield and George's dead face. The other side showed only empty road and Morgause. He didn't know which was the lesser of two evils.

"Ah, well," she said. "We'll get directions. Or perhaps you remember them?" She flicked her eyes over Arthur and Gwen on one side of the car, near the trunk, and Morgana on the other by her door. "Someone does, I'm sure. But I guess this means you're the one with the knowledge about the Vault?"

Morgana ripped her eyes away from Merlin, finally remembering other people were there too. She looked over at Arthur and Gwen, sizing them up. Uninjured as of now. Both looking concerned. Arthur was not being held. Gwen was. Morgause had four men, not including Agravaine. One was holding Merlin. One was holding Gwen. One had a gun on her, and the other held Arthur's gun and stood near the blond man.

Arthur looked uncomfortable when Morgause mentioned the Vault. You could see the sword hidden under his jacket, but if no one was looking at him it might be missed. He'd do best to keep quiet.

Merlin looked steadily at Morgause.

Morgause took that as a yes. "Where is Excalibur, then?" she asked kindly enough. To Merlin's credit, his eyes did not as much as flicker in Arthur's direction. He did not answer

Morgana's limbs were awash with dread. She couldn't look away as the big man in black, like the rest of Morgause's minions, reared back and threw his fist into Merlin's ribs. Merlin gave a small cry and bent over as all the air left him.

Morgana bit her lip.

"Come on," said Morgause. "You know where it is." Her face was pale and deadly. How could Morgana ever have felt anything but disgust for it?

Merlin chewed his lip and said nothing. Another blow to the ribs. He choked and closed his eyes tightly.

Morgana's heart clenched. "Morgause, stop!" she cried. "Come on, stop, he can't tell you anything!" He wouldn't.

Morgause looked over her way. There was a time when Morgana could make her facial expressions soften into a look of love. No longer. She was entirely impassive, it appeared.

Arthur looked at Gwen, unsure. She was looking away… He wanted to do the same. But he couldn't. That wasn't right. Should he speak up? Should he keep quiet? He didn't want Merlin getting roughed up because of him, but he didn't want these people to take Excalibur either. What should he do? He looked to Morgana for guidance, but she gave him nothing. She was looking at Merlin.

Agravaine looked on in disgust. He did not approve of senseless violence or needlessly cruel force; he wasn't as hard-hearted as Morgause, and despite the jealousy Agravaine felt for the boy who was so close to Morgana, he couldn't help but pity him. He began to look around.

Merlin had his eyes closed. Everything was black. He could almost convince himself that he wasn't on fire and he wasn't going to be hit.

"Where is Excalibur?" Morgause asked again. "You don't want me to set him loose?"

Merlin's face did not twitch. A punch to the face this time; his head was thrown back into the metal of the car and he cried out.

"Morgause!" Agravaine called out suddenly. She looked at him, and he pointed at Arthur. "He has it!" he said confidently. "It's in his jacket, see?"

Morgana hated herself for being relieved. Merlin didn't even bother sitting up. Morgause walked around the man holding the brunet and went towards Arthur, gesturing at her spare man to come forward. Arthur's eyes went wide like a deer's and he started to inch backwards, as though he was actually considering running away. His fists went up. But then the man holding his wife shifted his gun to her temple and sneered.

Arthur froze.

Morgause slipped her hand into the zipper of his jacket and laughed. Pulling aside the cloth and revealing the sword strapped to his chest with a belt, she took a second to revel in victory and then took Excalibur in her own hands. "Lovely sword," she said, looking at it with a crazy light in her eyes. "It holds so much power!"

Arthur looked at her as though she was bewildering. Morgause looked up and spun slowly on her heel, looking around at all the prisoners and everyone awaiting her orders.

"Well," she said, "we have what we need. Agravaine, you can get the directions from Geoffrey. Take care of them."

Even Merlin reacted to that. He tried to sit up.

Morgana was the most vocal. "Morgause, no!" she cried. "You can't just kill—"

Morgause snapped around to look her full in the face. "Kill?" she said. "No, not kill. Not yet. You'd never join me if I killed them, I know you!"

"What?" Gwen gasped, entirely confused. Arthur looked to Morgana with furrowed brow. Merlin had his eyes open and was now looking at Morgana steadily, but she didn't know what he was trying to tell her with his eyes.

Morgana wished her opponent's gun was gone so she could kick him and hit him into tomorrow.

"I'll join you when hell freezes over!" she shot back.

Morgause's gun was now aimed at her, and surprisingly enough, it was Agravaine who spoke. "You swore you wouldn't hurt her!" he reminded the curvy blonde.

She ignored him entirely. "Of course you have to say that right now while we're fighting," she told Morgana. "It's a matter of pride." She looked around at the other men. "Well?" she said. "I said take care of them."

Three of them moved. The man standing over Merlin reached into his back pocket, while the man holding Gwen reached into his front. Arthur tried not to breathe as the soaked white cloth was held over his mouth and nose.

It was no good. The world faded to black.

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><p><strong>AN: Review?**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hey. So, I think I may have had to punch myself in the face a few times to get this chapter out and written! BUT. I managed it at last. You may applaud if you wish :)**

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><p><strong>Title:<strong> The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Nine**

"There," Morgause said as Merlin, Gwen, and Arthur were sedated. Morgana did not take her eyes off Merlin even as he slumped unconscious, because she didn't trust the man holding him not to shoot him.

But Morgause talking caused Morgana to jerk her head up and glare at the blonde.

"Now you can talk without being judged. Morgana, you're a smart girl. You know you've lost, and it is in your best interest to join the winning side. So why don't you?"

"Morgause, we've had this discussion. I said thank you, but I have thrown in my lot with Camelot, and I wasn't going to change my mind."

"And what do you say now?"

"I say, shut the hell up and leave me alone, thank you."

Morgause's mouth twisted. There was no love left there. "At least this time you haven't stepped on your earpiece and tried to ruin my eardrums."

Morgana did not apologize.

"Morgana, please!" Agravaine begged. "You must think about what you are doing. You shouldn't be impulsive…"

"Shut up, Agravaine," she said. He was used to hearing that. He actually shut up. "Now, are you going to knock me out as well, or just leave me awake?" She'd like to escape. But she could hardly go without Merlin or the Pendragons, and they were in no shape to run.

"Morgana, think," Morgause said. "They can't tell you what to do now." She pointed her head in Merlin's direction. He was still on his back against the car. "And they'd understand. It would save so much trouble."

Morgana looked at Merlin. He still seemed to be having breathing. She hoped that his ribs weren't broken. She looked at the car. George was dead in there. They would have to get that body buried somehow. She didn't know how. Her gaze turned from the vehicle and was pointed silently at the blonde woman.

Morgause pursed her lips. "Ah, well," she said. "We don't need you, of course, but you would be an asset. I'll ask one last time, then." She reached into her pocket and drew out a small handgun. She looked down. "Are you still wearing those high heels, dear? I've told you they were impractical. You should listen to me. You can't run away in those."

"I have great balance," Morgana said. "It's all about being steady on the inside. It takes… soundness of mind."

A pause.

Morgana added quietly, "I imagine you have a great deal of trouble running in them."

Morgause snorted and pointed her gun in Morgana's direction casually.

Agravaine stepped forward, nearly in front of Morgana. "Morgause!" he protested, looking between the two (apparent) half-sisters. _Really, _Morgana thought suddenly, _I knew my mother had bad taste, but this is ridiculous. _Agravaine continued, "You promised that…!"

"Oh, _shut up_, Agravaine!" Morgause nearly yelled, the gun twitching in his direction. He nervously stepped back.

"For someone who doesn't need me, you seem desperate, Morgause."

Morgause ignored that. "Now, Morgana. Last chance." The gun firmed in her hand. "Join us. We don't need that loyalty you always talk about. Just your promise."

Morgana looked at the gun and suddenly her throat felt dry. She didn't want to get shot. She hadn't even told Merlin… She shook that thought away. She thought she'd already made this decision. It looked like it had to be done again.

She shook her head. "I promise I won't join you."

\-_-BREAK-_-/

"I hope he wakes up soon." Gwen said to Arthur. "They used the same stuff on him that they did on us, right? Why hasn't Merlin woken up?"

"Maybe he fell asleep. Don't panic, Guinevere, I'm sure he's fine." Arthur shifted uncomfortably. They'd woken up in a concrete cell, maybe a basement, with no windows and only one thick door—which was locked, probably multiple times, from the other side, unless Arthur missed his guess. There was no furniture, and the people inside had just been sprawled out in various positions. All of them had their hands tied behind their back.

"Of course I won't panic," she said – and again Arthur was introduced to the fact that his wife's sarcasm was so advanced it morphed into sweet sincerity. "Even though the situation might call for it."

He actually snorted. "We've been knocked out, locked up, and had Excalibur stolen so that our enemies can find the Vault of Emrys and… basically cause chaos or gain immortality or whatever it does… I can't think of a reason to panic."

"You forgot that we're trapped. And that Merlin isn't waking up."

"Don't worry." Morgana, who was sitting by Merlin's side watchfully, finally spoke up. "He looks okay. He'll get up pretty soon. I think he's starting to stir."

Indeed he was. Merlin was flat on his back, with his arms twisted beneath him, and he groaned as he came back into consciousness. Shaking his head so his hair flew about, he muttered, "My head."

"Come on, don't be a baby," Morgana reprimanded him. "I woke up before you, and I was knocked out after. So wake up." She wanted to poke him, but she was still worried about his ribs. She settled for nudging his head.

He opened his eyes and met the sight of the light bulb swinging above him. He winced at the sudden light. "Well," he said. "Not such a great morning. Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Morgana told him.

"The Pendragons?"

"We're fine, too," Gwen called from a little bit away, and he moved his head to look at her.

"Great," he said, and turned his eyes back to Morgana. "Morgause?"

"Oh, I joined her at once," Morgana said. "_That's_ why I'm tied up here with the rest of you." He raised his eyebrows, but she caught the sudden thoughtful look and was filled with disgust. "Wow, such faith in me. Do some trust exercises or something, Merlin, and stop thinking that my being tied up could be a trick!"

He winced. "I didn't really think that," he said. "It was… a casual thought."

She looked unconvinced. "It's what I would do," he explained. "Well, what did happen?"

"She threatened to shoot me if I didn't join, but I called her bluff. You know how she is," Morgana said. "She can't rest unless she has one spy at least around, and Agravaine seems like a move of desperation. She wants my cooperation pretty badly. She wouldn't kill me."

"And she wouldn't risk killing us and making you hate her," Merlin said, trying to sit up but falling back down. He groaned, and not just from the pain. He did know how Morgause was. He knew well. But then all of Morgana's words sunk in. "She threatened to shoot you?" he cried, his eyes going wide. "And you… you what, sarcastically said no and trampled on her pride?"

"Something like that."

"Morgana!"

"Hey, I knew what I was doing!"

"You could've been killed!"

"Wait a second," Arthur said from the other side of the room. He was sitting against the wall, not too far from Gwen. "How do you even know Morgause? Especially you, Morgana? What's the deal there?"

"Morgause is one of those long-lost relations you don't like to admit to," Morgana said. "She works for Escetia. Sometimes I think she _is_ Escetia. She's been giving us trouble for a while. Merlin, stop fidgeting. I want to look at your ribs. Do you think they're broken?"

"No, they don't hurt that bad," he replied.

"I wish we weren't tied up," Arthur commenting, casting his eyes around for means with which to free himself. "I could get us out of here if we weren't, I'll bet."

"Plus my arms are starting to hurt," Gwen said.

Morgana looked up. "I can get us out of these," she said. "Gwen, can you turn around?"

Gwen's eyebrows drew together. "Sure…?" She scooted away from the wall and twisted herself around until her feet were against the wall. She looked over her shoulder, past the hair that was falling down. "But how can you do that?"

"Here, I'll do it," Merlin offered, but Morgana shook her head.

"No, Merlin, I don't want to move you more than we have to. Thanks, Gwen." She was already facing away from Gwen, so she pushed her legs under herself and on her knees, inched back across the floor. "Look, get a good grip on my heel."

"Your shoe heel?"

"Yeah."

Gwen's hands were sore, but she managed to push them far enough away from her back to grab the black high heel. "Okay."

"Unscrew it."

"Um, what? Won't that just rip your shoe off?"

Merlin chuckled. "Just listen to Morgana when it comes to things like this."

Gwen was confused. She'd been given some weird orders in her life. "Start dancing the Macarena!", "Press the button with the foreign language", "Spit on this", and "Kiss me now!" were among them—the last one had almost led to a divorce. (A misunderstanding, she'd said.) And she'd seen cool gadgets. But she hadn't seen shoe-twisting come in handy. She shrugged. "Clockwise or counterclockwise?"

"Counter. That's it! Thanks."

To Gwen's slight surprise, the heel began to loosen. Then it came off. Gwen twisted around a little, hurting her back, to see Morgana's shoe. The heel was firm in her hand, but hollow. Where it had once been was a blade attached to Morgana's heel.

"Oh, _where_ did you get those _shoes_?" Gwen cried enviously. "Are they sold somewhere, or custom-made? Because I want a pair."

"I'd be willing to buy more clothes for you if they all came equipped like that," Arthur inserted.

"George designed them just for me when I told him I needed some," Morgana said a little sadly. "Gaius had them made. I'll see about getting you a pair." She bent back and took the shoe off, and said, "Okay, I'm doing yours first. Sit still."

Gwen sat stiller than a statue, putting pressure on pulling her arms apart to make the rope longer. After a second, she became aware of a sawing sound near her wrists. After a minute or so, she heard a snap and her arms flew to her side. "Oh, that's better," she said, turning around. "Here." She freed Morgana and then gave the shoe back. Morgana did Arthur's bonds, and then she went to Merlin.

"Arthur, be a dear and prop him up," she said. Arthur crossed the dank basement and acting as Merlin's chair for a few seconds as Morgana freed her partner from his bonds. Then, gently, he put him back down. "Thank you, Arthur," she said. "Merlin, I want to get you to a hospital, so they can make sure you aren't too badly hurt. That man was huge."

"I guess he was," Merlin said. "Pretty brave of me, if I do say so myself."

Morgana chuckled, the lines between her forehead lessening a little. "But first we need to get out of here. What was that you said about being able to escape?" She pointed the last question at Arthur.

Arthur grinned. "You aren't the only one with a cool gadget." He pulled the ring from his finger.

"You didn't have that when we admitted you to the hospital," Morgana said.

"It was in his safe. Same place he got Excalibur," Merlin explained, rubbing his wrists. "What does it do?"

Arthur pulled it from his finger as his wife came over. "The bottom is rubber," he said. "The top is metal." He showed them how the bottom rubber part had a small metal piece at the very bottom, sticking inside the circle. He pushed the sides of the ring, so it folded in on itself, and the small metal piece clicked into place underneath the gem. The ring began to flash.

"What is it?" Morgana asked.

"It's like a pager, but it contacts other people."

"Who?"

"Um, several friends have it connected to their cell phone. I don't know if Geoffrey still has it connected to headquarters; it's been a long time. But my father would have gotten it, if he was alive. Gwaine will be contacted. Lancelot, Percival, and Gwen's brother, Elyan."

"And they can track us through it?" Morgana guessed.

Arthur nodded.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Somewhere, sitting at a table outside a restaurant, watching girls and waiting for dinner, Gwaine felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

He sighed and dug it out of his jeans, flipping it open – because yes, he still had a flip phone, and no one had a right to mock him for it.

He read the reading in read on the screen and his eyebrows shot up until they reached his long, fluffy, thick brown hair (which he was slightly proud of). Well, hadn't seen that in a while.

_EMERGENCY. ARTHUR PENDRAGON. EMERGENCY._

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><p><strong>AN: Yep. I managed to make Morgana's heels and Arthur's ever-present ring actually useful to the plot. Also, Gwaine! Please review?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Ten**

Gwaine leaned back in his seat of the same restaurant about an hour later, looking around at his friends. They'd all gotten the message.

Elyan, Lancelot, Gwaine, and Percival made it. Leon was out of the country, and though he'd called Gwaine asking if he needed to abort his current mission and come home, he was assured that the four of them could handle whatever kind of trouble Arthur Pendragon had landed himself in this time.

"Don't worry," Gwaine said, laughing. "He's probably just in the doghouse with Gwen and incapable of figuring out the reconciliatory powers of flowers without help!"

It put Leon's fears at rest, allowing Gwaine and the rest to focus on the problem—Arthur.

"Let's make this fast," Elyan said as he sat at the table across from Gwaine. Gwaine's position had been close enough for everybody to make it the best location for meeting. "I'm supposed to be researching the explosive capabilities of flora."

"Fascinating," Gwaine said.

"Not as important as Arthur," Lancelot inserted.

"Maybe not to you…" Elyan said, but he was only kidding as he fiddled with his phone. "Luckily it won't take long." He waved his new phone before the others. "Instead of following the beeping, we can just plug it into a GPS this time. Because I have a _modern_ phone."

Gwaine fingered his own phone, a point of constant contention. "My phone is mature, not a toy like yours with all its apps," he commented snidely.

"Is this really important right now?" asked Lancelot.

"Where is Arthur's signal coming from, then?" asked Percival, who had been sipping on a beverage and listening up until now.

Elyan fiddled some more with his touch screen (which Gwaine saw with some disgust… Not that he had anything against touch screens, just _Elyan's_ touch screen). Then he held it up to be seen. "Middle of the woods," he said. "Completely off the beaten track. He's not just in the doghouse."

"Maybe Gwen's _really_ mad at him," Gwaine said, taking the phone and looking at it, his irritation at it forgotten.

"When Gwen's really angry," Elyan replied, "there's no way she'd let her victim get that far away. Unless that's his body." Elyan swore up and down that Gwen actually had quite a temper when she was pushed, but no one else, including her husband, claimed to have seen it in effect.

"Well," Lancelot said, draining the last of his drink and standing. "I vote we get going and find out, then."

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Arthur was talking to his wife about nothing in particular, discussing how he was going to have a hard time getting back into the work cycle after this. "You know, the irregular sleep, the being knocked out…" _The crushing boredom of work_, he added in his head, but didn't say it. She'd get the wrong idea.

Morgana and Merlin were discussing other things a few feet away. Merlin was still flat on his back, so she was lounging on her stomach in order to keep their faces level. Her shoe heel had been reattached. Their conversation was at least a little more pertinent to the situation.

"I remember how to get there," Merlin said. "It will take them a while to get the same information, especially if Agravaine wants to use Kilgharrah. He can't use technology to save his life, and he only has until we get out of her and oust him. But if we take too long in here, we'll lose any advantage."

"Arthur said soon."

"What does he know? They could be a country away. Well, okay, not Gwaine." He'd seen Gwaine several days ago. "My point is that we don't have time for a detour to the hospital."

"I want to get you checked out."

"We don't have time."

Morgana sucked on her lip. "If I can get you in and out of that hospital, and then get us a helicopter, will you consent to going to the hospital?"

Merlin's eyebrows drew together. "Where are you going to get a helicopter?"

"Well, it's not like we can keep this a secret from the higher-ups anymore. And we have to hurry and get back on the job, because they have Agravaine and Excalibur. I'll wrangle a helicopter out of them. You know me."

Merlin sighed and stuck his hand in his pocket. "You know, I'd gladly give this mission to someone else if it meant someone got there in time! I wish they hadn't taken our phones. Or our guns."

"Morgause is crazy, not stupid."

Merlin nodded and rolled his head around to look at Arthur. "Are you sure they got your signal?"

"They did," Arthur said.

"It's been hours," Merlin nearly moaned.

"Does it hurt?" Morgana asked, worried at his bad temper, but he shook his head, biting his lip.

Something pounded on the door. Everyone's head jerked up. Sounds continued to emanate from the other side; more pounding, scuffling, and finally, voices.

"_Are you sure this is it?"_

"_Positive, this is where it led us. The door's locked; he's probably inside."_

"_Well, let's get these latches out the way. I think…"_ A rattling sound. _"It's still locked though."  
><em>

"_Should I shoot it?"_

"_Arthur! Arthur, you in there?"_

Arthur straightened and yelled, "Yes, Elyan, I'm in here!"

"_I heard him!"_

"_Here…"_ A gunshot. _"Weakened, but I don't…"_

"_Watch out!"_

_Crash!_

The door came open, and a large man came barreling in, having obviously rammed the door with himself. Three other men stood on the other side, staring in.

"Hello, Percival," Arthur said. "Good to see you."

Merlin nodded as well. He'd seen Percival around. Arthur, Gwen, and Morgana got to their feet as the three other men came in. Merlin tried to as well, but Morgana wouldn't let him.

"For heaven's sake, Morgana!" Merlin cried. "My legs aren't broken. I'm just a bit bruised!"

Gwaine put his gun back up and looked around at the captives he'd just freed. "Well," he said to Lancelot. "When Arthurgets himself trapped in the middle of nowhere, he does it with good company. Merlin, Morgana! What are you two doing here?"

"I'm lying down," Merlin told him.

"We had a run in with Morgause," Morgana explained. "She had more men than us. We were off to the Vault of Emrys, but now she's got Excalibur, and Agravaine is working with her, and we need to get Merlin to a hospital. Also, I need someone's cell phone, because mine is gone and I need to book a helicopter from Geoffrey, thanks."

Everyone looked at her, and then turned to blink at Arthur.

"Yeah, pretty much what she said," Arthur said. "Hey, Gwaine, Elyan, Lancelot." His voice tightened a little bit on the last name, but his smile never faltered.

They all greeted him, and then Gwen.

"Well, if we're in a hurry then, let's get to the cars. We brought two, luckily," Elyan told Arthur. "We didn't know you weren't alone, you know."

Morgana looked at Merlin. His eyes went wide as he struggled to his feet.

"Merlin!"

"No. No, I put my foot down. I will not be carried to the car. Even if a rib was broken, I could walk. Morgana, I'm walking."

She let her breath flap at her lips and nodded.

Gwen was the first to leave, with Arthur right behind her. She smiled at all of their rescuers, but Arthur gave her a little push when she smiled at Lancelot.

"For heaven's sake!" she said, and Lancelot looked away as the married couple continued out the door.

Elyan chuckled at the blush on Lancelot's cheeks. Arthur was not generally _too_ jealous, but where Gwen's ex-boyfriend was involved, he could get protective. That little scene Arthur had walked in on hadn't helped either.

Gwen and Lancelot's argument was that it had distracted Arthur long enough to allow the threat to be removed and saved his life. But that didn't garner any sympathy from Arthur, who had nearly had a heart attack.

And Lancelot still couldn't look Gwen or Arthur in the eye.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

They got them to the hospital as quickly as they could, and Merlin was checked in. Morgana sat in the waiting room, worried about him, and argued with Geoffrey over the possibility of landing a helicopter directly on the roof of the hospital.

"I don't care if people are going to complain, Geoffrey!" she said sharply, tapping her fingernails and her toes. "Your job is to take care of complaints while you get me what I need! Merlin will fly it of course, he's licensed. We aren't breaking the law here, just policy a little. Look, we're trying to save the day!"

She paused and listened. "Twist arms. Pull the card with them being idiots for not noticing Agravaine wasn't even on our side!" She pulled at her hair. "No, I didn't notice either. I have faith in you, Geoffrey. Helicopter. Roof. One hour."

"_ONE HOUR?"_

That shout was so loud even Arthur, sitting next to Morgana in a hard plastic chair, heard it. She pulled the phone from her ear.

"One hour," she reiterated, and hit the end button. "Here, Percival, take your phone back. Sorry if you get angry text messages from Geoffrey."

Percival ambled over and took his phone back, thanking her. He went back over to Lancelot and Gwaine, who were having a discussion about sports.

Morgana sighed and sank down into her chair, putting her hands to her face and looking momentarily weary. Arthur felt bad for her, but when he looked around to see if his wife would help her, he remembered that Gwen had gone to get something to eat—she was starving, she claimed, and would bring him something.

Arthur was alone.

"You're worried about him, aren't you?"

She looked up. "Yeah," she said. "I am."

"You know he's fine, right? I've broken ribs before, and I don't think he was that badly hurt."

Morgana nodded. "I know, I'm silly. I can't help worry about him." She fiddled with her fingers and looked into the distance. "He had me really scared for a while. Morgause shouldn't have hit him like that." She shrugged.

Arthur licked his lips. He didn't do emotions really well. "You like him?"

She looked at Arthur and laughed. "You make it sound like we're in primary school. Yes, I like him."

"You haven't told him?"

She shook her head. "No, I think he needs time."

"I bet he likes you back," Arthur said awkwardly. "The way he acts around you…"

"He needs time. We haven't… talked about it. But I don't think he's ready for a relationship."

"Ouch," Arthur said. When Gwen had said that to him once, he'd nearly lost her to his own immaturity.

"Merlin has this thing about trust," Morgana said. "He trusts me, I know he does. And when he trusts someone, he really does. But he just has such terrible luck. Like his friend Borden; he trusted him."

Arthur looked sympathetic. "What happened?"

"Borden was an ambitious backstabber, tried to steal some new technology from Merlin. And then there was…" She cleared her throat and shrugged. "Freya."

"An old girlfriend? Didn't end so well?"

Morgana gave a dry laugh. "Didn't end so well is what happened with me and Alvarr, when it turns out he's been seeing someone else the entire time. Freya accidentally got mixed up with Escetia. She was having some problems with her loyalty, and Merlin tried to help her decide what to do… But she didn't know she'd been bugged, a CAT microphone."

Arthur nodded. Covert Audio Technology. This was sounding familiar…

"She was accidentally feeding them information. When she was arrested, she panicked and tried to flee. She was killed in the shoot out. You probably heard about that. It was when you still worked for Camelot, before Merlin got promoted."

"That was Merlin's girlfriend?" Arthur said, feeling guilt rise up. Heard about it? He'd been on the mission. He'd been one of the men trying to catch her when he was shot at. His bullet could have been the one that killed her! "I'm so sorry."

Morgana sighed. "It really hurt him, made it hard for him to trust anyone. How can I tell him how I feel about him before he's over her?"

"It's been more than a year," said Arthur.

Morgana shrugged.

Arthur looked down at his own hands. This was more information than he'd ever asked for about Merlin, and he was taken aback by it. "I still think you should tell him. He might surprise you."

Morgana smiled at Arthur gratefully, but then she stood up and straightened, suddenly business-like. "If you'll excuse me," she said. "I have an hour to get Merlin discharged from the hospital and finagle four guns from somewhere. Did Elyan already leave? Unfortunate…"

She winked at Arthur and sashayed over to the group of men talking a little bit away, a gleam of mischief in her eyes.

Arthur smiled and watched her go. He wanted to see this.

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><p><strong>AN: Only a few chapters left, unless I'm wrong. Review?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Eleven**

Nothing was broken, the doctors said. He had some bruising on his ribs and cheek, but Merlin would be fine.

"Ice will bring the swelling down," said the pretty young nurse competently, expertly ignoring Gwaine's attempts to get her attention as she talked to Merlin. "No offense, but your face is a little uneven now."

Merlin laughed. "Thank you," he said. "Oh, which way is the roof?"

She looked at him quizzically. Not where most patients went when they were dismissed. But she decided it wasn't really her business, so she pointed. "The elevator brings you there, but it's locked except for authorized access."

"Is it?" asked Merlin. "Thank you." He turned and walked towards Morgana and Arthur. Gwen was across the room, throwing away her Coke can.

Behind him, he heard Gwaine begin. "So, you new on staff? I didn't see you last time I was checked in."

Merlin snorted and blocked him out. "Thanks," he told Morgana as she passed him his new gun. "They gave you authorized permission?"

"I'll have to turn over this key when we leave," she told him, giving him a hug after he slipped his gun into his holster. "I'm glad you're alright."

"Whose gun is this?"

"Percival's," Morgana said with an impish smile. "We'll have to return that too."

"I think Morgana has magic," Arthur announced. "I've never seen anything like it." He reached out, and before he realized what he was doing, clasped Merlin's shoulder. "Glad you're okay."

"Thanks," Merlin said, and headed for the elevator. "Come on, then!" he called, and the other three followed him. Arthur hung back just a step though, and grabbed Morgana's shoulder.

"One question," Arthur said slowly, remembering their earlier conversation. "You don't have to answer. But… why does he trust you so much?"

She shrugged. "Escetia tried to get me, saw that I was unsure of myself. Just like Freya." But then she smiled. "But they didn't."

"Why?"

"Two reasons. Merlin and martial arts." She grinned and pushed her hair back. "Both are great for self-confidence boosts."

"Arthur, darling," Gwen called as she entered the elevator. "We will leave you behind."

"Coming," he said, and he and Morgana quickly caught up. Arthur gave his wife a kiss and a hug. "Threatening to leave me behind. You know you can't do this without me."

"That's why I warned you," she replied warmly.

Going to the roof required a key to be turned, so Morgana did the honors. And the elevator began to rise.

\-_-BREAK-_-/

Merlin smiled when he got into the driver's seat. "I love flying," he confessed to Arthur. "It's very freeing."

"If you crash us, I'll kill you," he replied.

Outside, Morgana gave the key to the man who'd arrived in the helicopter. "Here," she said. "Return this to the counter downstairs. Also, if Gwaine, Percival, and Lancelot are still hanging around, tell them to get a move on. Make sure they remember to make the proper arrangements for George, and get that car wreck picked up. It's a miracle no one's called it in already. Can you remember that?"

"Yes, ma'am," Morris, the man who'd flown there, assured her. "I'll get it taken care of."

"Thank you."

"Come on, Morgana," Gwen practically sang from the helicopter. She was so excited. "Get aboard!"

Morgana ran to the vehicle and climbed into the seat next to Merlin. "Now, remember," she said to the dark-haired man. "I can't fly this thing, so if you die, we're all doomed."

"I don't plan on dying," Merlin assured her, and took off.

Meanwhile, Arthur seemed to have forgotten that he was an unwilling assistant on this mission, and he had done what he did naturally—he took charge. "Okay," he said, looking around. "Here's the plan."

Morgana turned around and raised an eyebrow – usually she or Merlin was the leader, and she intended to remind him so. Only then she caught a glimpse of Gwen's pleading face, and withdrew. Right. Assist Arthur in letting out his inner secret agent. "What's the plan?" she asked.

"The Vault of Emrys is supposed to be sealed by a giant rock in the woods. Morgause is going to try to open it with Excalibur. We don't know what's inside; legends say the spirit of Emrys, the most powerful magician in history. But it could be anything. If it's something explosive or dangerous and they succeed in opening the Vault, we're going to need to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible. Taking off in a helicopter might be a little difficult."

"Not as difficult as landing is going to be," Merlin commented. "I'll figure something out though; go on, please."

"But we're not here to deal with that unless we have to. We're here to keep them from opening the Vault. We need to get Excalibur from them and get away. If we don't do anything else, we need to accomplish that."

"Without dying," Gwen added. "We don't want to die. What about Morgause and Agravaine? What are our orders where they are concerned, sir?" She grinned.

"If we can get Agravaine back to headquarters to stand trial for what he did, good. But I doubt that's going to happen. Let's try not to have too much gunplay. Use the trees for cover if we have to. We just want Excalibur now. It's not the time to research the Vault, like we wanted."

"You realize they may have already come and gone?" asked Merlin.

"I hope not," Arthur answered. "But I realize it. Basically, what I'm saying is that…" He took a deep breath and smiled at Gwen. "We need to improvise."

The flight seemed to take forever. But it didn't, really, and soon enough, Merlin pointed to a small clearing. "I can land there," he said. "It's about a half-mile from the site, if I'm right."

"You better be right," snorted Morgana.

"Do you see their cars anywhere?"

"Maybe," Morgana says, squinting. "It could be them. There are a few cars over there, off the road. "Could be anyone."

"But it's not, is it?" Arthur asked, looking out the window.

Merlin landed, his face scrunched up in concentration, but the others hardly noticed if he was having trouble. Gwen was raring to go, and Arthur's fingers were itching. Only Morgana paid the slightest attention to what he was doing, and that was only so that she could get up and open the door the second it was safe.

When at last Merlin had the plane safe on the ground and off, Morgana leapt to her feet. Arthur helped her get the door open before he looked at Merlin, who was just getting out of his seat.

"Well done," the blond said. "You didn't get us killed."

And then he jumped down into the grass, helping his wife down after him.

"Ready for this?" he asked her breathlessly.

She stood up on her toes and kissed him quickly, tapping the gun she had in her waistline—though Arthur had snatched Lancelot's holster and sworn to return it, she didn't have one. "I was born ready, Arthur Pendragon."

Inside the plane, Morgana waited for Merlin to make his way to the door. "How are you?" she asked.

"A little sore, but ready to go save the day," he assured her.

When he started for the door, she held up a hand to stop him and bit her lip. "Merlin…"

"Yes?" he looked at her expectantly but impatiently.

"You know it's not very likely we can do this if they're ahead of us."

"Do you have another one of your bad feelings?"

"No," she said. "No. Just… Merlin, I like you. A lot."

Merlin stopped, his eyes slowly moving away from the door and back to hers, as though her words had frozen him. "Oh," he said in surprise. "Oh."

She began to blush, looking down, and reached for the door, but this time, he stopped her by grabbing her arm.

"Morgana," he told her, smiling, "I like you a lot too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We'll talk about it after we get Excalibur back, alright?"

She beamed. "Alright," she said, feeling a little bit dizzy as he helped from down from the helicopter. Arthur and Gwen were already headed for the trees, and Merlin and Morgana caught up to them quickly.

"You two alright?" asked Gwen.

"Yeah," Merlin said, grinning at her like a fool, and then he slipped to the front of the group next to Arthur.

They jogged, because no one wanted to be too out of breath when they made it. Morgana took off her shoes and went barefoot.

"I see people!" Gwen hissed after a few minutes, and everyone stopped moving for speed and began to exercise stealth. Morgana and Gwen took to the closest trees they could find, looking around before moving any closer.

"I see the Vault," Arthur told Merlin.

"And Morgause," Merlin whispered, beginning to be alarmed. They were too late!

Through the small cover of the trees, Morgause could be seen. Her men were around her in a semi-circle, watching, and Agravaine too was there, looking uncomfortable.

The rock nearly glistened in the sunlight, looking not quite natural. The sword was gleaming as she came forward, excitement written all over her face. Her walk was nearly reverent as she came right up to the Vault of Emrys.

She looked so out of place in her black pants and shirt, with her gun at her side and her blonde hair in waves around her, holding a sword up to a rock like a figure from legends. It was almost comical. Except that it was not comical at all.

She held Excalibur up, hilt pointing towards the sky, and took a deep breath.

Arthur watched with dread.

"No!" Merlin cried, giving himself away, reaching for his gun as he threw himself forward.

Morgause's head whipped around to look at him, but she only laughed at his zeal. "Too late!" she cried with relish. "Too late! The power of Emrys is _mine_!"

And the sword came down.

Effortlessly, like a knife into butter, the sword drove itself into the rock until half the hilt could no longer be seen. Morgause clenched her fists and closed her eyes as though ready.

And then Excalibur began to glow. Light leaked from the hilt, first with an eerie phosphorescent shine, and then like rays from the sun. The bright light spread down the blade and into the rock, becoming so bright that no one could look. Arthur shielded his eyes with his arm; Gwen pressed her face into a tree. Agravaine turned away, and even Morgause stumbled back. A humming noise filled their ears.

But not Merlin. Merlin just stared as though mesmerized, his gun only halfway from its hilt and his legs locked like roots.

The rock burst into sudden resplendence, worse than the sun. No one, not even Morgana, who had been struggling to reach Merlin, could stand it. Even through eyelids, the light could be seen. The humming grew louder.

And though they couldn't see it, they somehow knew that Merlin had not moved.

The light gave one last burst, turning everyone's sight to red behind their closed lids, and began to dim. The humming noise faded away.

Unexpectedly, in the new silence, Merlin screamed.

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><p><strong>AN: Hm. Next chapter may be the last. If it isn't, the one after it will be! **


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I hope you appreciate that I'm 20,000 words into an original story and I'm sitting here typing Merlin AUs instead of working on it. ;)**

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><p><strong>Title:<strong> The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Chapter Twelve**

_"The Vault of Emrys is legendary place. It's rumored to have the spirit of a very powerful man trapped inside, only able to be summoned out by Excalibur. The legend says that the power would go into the person closest to Emrys that's around when it's opened."_

Merlin had heard Arthur say it, tell the legend of the Vault right there from his hospital bed, but he hadn't really believed him until the key was inserted into the Vault.

Then light splayed out, catching him like the tractor beam of an old sci-fi, keeping his eyes on it, and suddenly it didn't occur to him to doubt it.

Everyone else looked away, but Merlin didn't understand that. Sure, there was a lot of light, turning everything golden-white, but it wasn't painful. It didn't hurt. It was pretty; beautiful and pure, like… _magic_.

The light pulsed, as though searching for something, and Merlin didn't move, just let it come. It was almost alive, the pulsing energy, almost intelligent—it acted with a purpose, with self-preservation and motivation, and it was searching for him.

He wasn't sure how he knew that, but somehow when it touched him, he felt like it was searching for him. So Merlin didn't move.

The light seemed to caress him all around, and when he felt it recognized him, there was a sense of relief emanating from it. Without words, he understood.

_Kin, _it seemed to breathe out. _Emrys-like soul. Emrys-like body. Kin. Posterity. Home. _

And then, though Merlin would never quite be able to explain it, it seemed to settle inside of him. It seeped right through his skin like moisture and settled into him like a second skin, and the light slowly began to fade.

Merlin gave a content hum; he felt well, like he had no bruises. He felt larger than life; peaceful and powerful and safe.

All the others turned to look at him again, eyes wide in a sort of terror or awe. Merlin had never seen anyone look at him that way. But the energy of Emrys, clinging to him like glue, was used to it. Merlin felt a desire to ask what was wrong, but nothing came out of his mouth.

"Merlin!" the blond man shouted. "You're glowing!"

Those were words he didn't understand. Or he did, but by the time they reached past the magic, they were too blurred to hear correctly. Something like that. Somehow the words seemed too unimportant. Wasn't he the most powerful being ever?

Or was that the light clinging him that had so much power?

Was there a difference?

The blonde woman – witch, the word fit right – snarled in fury upon seeing him, and reaching for the weapon in her holster. Before Merlin realized what was happening, the energy had reacted, and his hand rose.

She screamed shortly (why was sound so distorted?) and fell back, and she didn't get up again. Of course she didn't, the energy knew. Merlin didn't understand. His hand hadn't gone down, and he stared at it, trying to care, and something seemed to be wrong with everyone outside of his basking light.

The earth-skinned woman cursed, and the pale beauty seemed to be calling out to him.

What were they so upset about? What was there to worry about? There was light everywhere, light to bask in and enjoy, completely peaceful and powerful… Like sitting in the sun on a perfect day…

"Merlin!" the blond yelled. "Make it stop! Make it stop, Merlin!"

The blond was awfully close to him, wasn't he? Perhaps the energy should take care of him like it had the woman.

Merlin hesitated. That felt wrong, but thinking was so tiring. He had magic!

Most of the other people, the men who had been standing around, had run away. Except for one, that one who was older. He was near the pale beauty, as though trying to protect her.

That thought was disturbing to Merlin, and Emrys' energy picked up on it, turning to him. Merlin's eyes felt hot. His hand was still up.

The man hollered in panic, but Merlin didn't recognize it. But the woman… She stumbled back, her eyes huge. Merlin hesitated.

Suddenly someone's hands were on his arms, and being touched felt so strange that he turned to look at the blond man. _What was his name? Why wouldn't it come to mind?_ The man flinched and pulled away like he'd been burned, and Merlin was sorry he'd let go.

For a second when he'd held on, Merlin had felt connected to the world. He hadn't even realized he was disconnected.

But then he grabbed on again, determined, and looked Merlin in the eye. _Arthur. His name was Arthur._

"Merlin, stop; you're destroying everything!"

Merlin cast his eyes around; the trees were bent diagonal with wind that hadn't been there before. The people left were clinging to things to keep them upright. Limbs were falling from the trees, and leaves were whipped into people's faces. But somehow those winds weren't touching Merlin. He was fine. He was strong and steady.

"Merlin, stop!"

"I'm not doing this! I don't know how!" he yelled back.

"Merlin, please! Put Emrys back in the Vault!"

"Put the power back?" Merlin sounded aghast, angry, but that wasn't him, was it? "_Put me back, close me away, when I've just gotten out? Never!_"

Arthur didn't let go, but he pulled back, terror in his eyes. It hadn't been Merlin's voice, literally that time. It was too deep. It wasn't him.

"Merlin, you are going to rip us all to shreds!" Arthur yelled.

Merlin pushed him away. Then he lifted his hand. He would not go back! He would not! (He? Was it him? Had he been locked up?) He would dispose of the blond!

"Merlin!" And her voice was so pained and scared that he looked at her. Beautiful face. Most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. She trusted him. "Please, Merlin!" she screamed. "Put him back!"

Merlin blinked. Him. Emrys's energy. Yes. He, Merlin, had not been locked away, but the magic had. The energy had latched onto him, was seeping into him, but it was too much, it wasn't his soul. It needed to go back. It wasn't him, but it was acting for him!

His eyes, which had been burning fiercely gold, faded to blue. Morgana, arms wrapped around a tree for support, saw him look at her. He mouthed her name. "Morgana."

Merlin stumbled towards the Vault. His face was twisted in pain or concentration.

Agravaine, before her, tried to reach him. What could Agravaine do? She shook her head, but paid him no mind. Merlin was all that was important.

Merlin fell to his knees before the rock. The winds still ripped at her skin, but she was no longer in danger of being blown away. Her legs were weak, but Gwen was moving. Gwen was running towards the rock.

"I'll get him," Agravaine muttered, looking at Merlin, who once more had gold eyes. He went forward, whipping out a knife. "I'll get the sniveling little…"

"No!" Morgana yelled, reaching for her gun. It was gone. It had been pulled away in the wind.

But Arthur was ahead of her. He moved between the dark haired men, his hands out protectively. Agravaine had a knife though, and Arthur's gun was gone too.

"Arthur!" Gwen yelled from the Vault, and then she pulled Excalibur from its stony sheathe like it was the easiest thing in the world. And she threw it. It arched through the air, and Arthur caught it miraculously.

Agravaine dived forward, but Arthur moved in the way, his sword out and flashing. The gold on Excalibur's blade was brilliant.

Merlin was trying to unwrap the energy around him, but it had a grip like hooks and it _hurt_. But he could still see Morgana's face, and so he concentrated. But when he heard Agravaine's approach and Arthur's defense, he didn't even stop to think. His eyes were hot, and then Agravaine was falling. And he was getting back up. And he was falling.

He screeched. And then he bounced up and fell and crashed into a tree and…

_No, no, don't let the magic in, push it off! Push it off! Put Emrys back!_

The magic struggled, grabbing on as though with claws. A cry of protest came from him, but he didn't stop. It needed to _go_. It wanted to take over, and he did not want to be taken over. He wasn't Emrys. He wasn't Emrys's soul. He was Merlin and he didn't want to be latched onto.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Emrys," he said through gritted teeth. "But this is my body and you. Can't. Have. It."

Throwing himself against the rock with one last almighty heave, the energy began to leak out. He could see the light leaving him and going into the rock. Now Arthur was standing above him, sword in hand, poised to stab downwards. But Merlin did not react as though threatened; the magic kept leaving, kept pouring out…

_Don't let the door hit you on your way out._

He let out a slight manic laugh as the pour of light lessened to a trickle.

"Is that it?" called Arthur.

"Wait," Merlin groaned. A little more. A little more. Squeeze it out like toothpaste.

"Is that it?"

"Close it!"

The sword went down into the stone, and the light shut off as though the switch had been thrown.

And then it was over. Merlin collapsed as Arthur retrieved Excalibur from the rock. Rolling onto his back, Merlin looked at the sky and breathed.

He was Merlin again. There was no light. He was free, grounded, and real. It felt good.

Suddenly Morgana was there, throwing herself on him, her lips over his. And he was too tired to appreciate it fully, what a pity.

"Merlin!" she cried. "Merlin, are you alright?"

She hugged him. He tried to hold her back. And there was Gwen, too, nearly in tears. Arthur was above him, grinning.

Merlin sighed. "Well," he said as he was helped into a sitting position. "Who knew I was so much like the almighty Emrys?"

His ears picked up another noise. Looking over across the small clearing with ripped-bare trees around it, he saw Agravaine. He was lying on the ground, nearly whimpering, but he wasn't conscious. He had a cut across his forehead.

"We might need to tie him up or something," Arthur said.

Merlin's forehead drew together. "There was someone else…" he said slowly, and then turned his head.

Morgause was lying by the rock. Gwen had stepped over her. She was still, staring up at the sky, and she wasn't breathing. Merlin had done it. And he hadn't even known he was doing it.

He looked at Arthur, eyes wide. "We'd better keep Excalibur better hidden this time. This report, it was smelted by power or something, you hear me? We don't need this again."

Arthur nodded, looking like he agreed wholeheartedly.

"How are you feeling, Merlin?" Morgana asked. "Can you walk?"

"I'm fine," Merlin said. "My bruises are gone. I feel a little weird though…"

"Weird how?"

"Weird like… I don't know. The energy's all gone; it's not on me anymore. But I feel like it left traces…" He lifted his palm and looked at it, concentrating.

And suddenly his eyes were hot, and there in his palm, a tiny flame was flickering merrily away at room temperature.

Everyone looked at him, and he looked at them.

"A souvenir," guessed Arthur.

"Hopefully," Merlin added. "Without side effects."

"Maybe it will fade?" Gwen said. Merlin knew, somehow, that it wouldn't. But he couldn't tell her. So he nodded.

He shook his head, then, and the flame disappeared.

"We should get back," Morgana said. "There's rope in the helicopter for him." She jerked her head toward Agravaine.

"Good idea," Merlin said as he got to his feet. "It's over, isn't it?" He said happily, and then he laughed. "Arthur, Gwen, you can go home!"

"Merlin, look how far those winds went!" Gwen said in amazement. "You knocked down trees!"

"Let's hurry and get back," said Arthur. "I want to stash this away somewhere _safe_."

"Let's go home," said Morgana, holding Merlin's arm. It was a lot more pleasant than that magic trying to keep stuck onto him.

"Yeah," said Merlin, smiling at everyone again, just because he could and it felt good. "Mission accomplished. Smooth sailing now!"

And then they reached the helicopter, and, of course, Merlin had completely trashed it with his little magic hissy fit. It still had the basic structure, but it was completely unflyable.

Merlin closed his eyes as though in pain.

"Well," said Gwen. "I hope somebody managed to get a cell phone before we came here."

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><p><strong>AN: One more short chapter. An epilogue. **


	13. Epilogue

**Title:** The Vault of Emrys

**Author:** Kitty O

**Rating:** T

**Epilogue**

His own bed again.

Arthur had only been away about two days (though he later discovered he'd spent the night in the basement—was that three?), but it felt like weeks. There were other mysteries and problems to be cleared up, of course. Why had Morgause and Agravaine taken so long to reach the Vault, for example? (The answer was easy. Agravaine couldn't figure out how to work Kilgharrah.) And would the four people ever get their cell phones back?

But Arthur didn't particularly care about any of that. He would let Merlin and Morgana worry about cellular devices.

He was glad to be home, but not as glad as he had thought he would be. Home was peaceful, he realized, but he was glutted on peace. He was not made for that.

He didn't admit it to Gwen. Instead he focused on the one thing he was undeniably joyful about; he could sleep in his own bed again.

It was two weeks later, and it was two in the morning. Arthur was sleeping. Gwen was next to him, on her side, one hand splayed on his bare chest because she always shifted in her sleep.

And then Arthur woke up. He couldn't say why, but his senses were on high alert. Was there danger? He wondered at once. Or perhaps he'd simply had a bad dream.

He was still as he took in his surroundings. Gwen was warm next to him, and he was glad that she was not on the other side of the bed, avoiding him. They'd fought again this afternoon; over chicken, this time, though they both knew it was really about Camelot, and how Arthur wanted to stay retired, and how bored they both were.

Other than her, the room was still, cold, and dark, and—

Something moved.

Gwen woke up silently beside him.

Arthur kept a gun under the bed. A man with his training, of course he did. Slowly his hand inched away from his side as he reached for it. He was still far away when he heard the voice.

"Please don't, you might shoot me on accident."

"Merlin!" he gasped, sitting up. Gwen grabbed the covers and held them up over her shoulders.

"Merlin?" she echoed sleepily. "What in the world are you doing in our bedroom?"

"Sorry," he said. "I know it isn't polite, but you didn't answer when we knocked."

"We? Morgana's here?" This time Arthur pulled the covers up a little.

"I'm by the door," Morgana said, and opened it. The hall light leaked in, but the visibility in the room was still low. Probably why Gwen hadn't already ordered Merlin out of the room.

"We are sorry," Morgana went on. "Merlin's just so impatient. And clumsy. We didn't mean to wake you up by knocking things over and startling you."

"How did you get in?" Gwen asked.

"Morgana can pick locks," Merlin said.

"Liar," Arthur returned. "Not our locks."

"Okay, I used magic. I'm getting the hang of it. Now you need to get up!"

"Why?" Arthur asked, wishing his shirt was in arm's-reach. "Why are you here? Why do we need to get up?"

"Well," Merlin explained, waving his hand, "Alined is hatching some scheme again, and we think he's trying to take over the world. Again. But in order to infiltrate his place, we need a married couple he won't recognize, because he's throwing some sort of party for married people. It's part of his plan. He's a bit outlandish. But, well, he'd recognize Morgana and me, and so we thought to ourselves," and he paused to lean against the dresser, "'Wouldn't it be nice if we knew a couple he hasn't met, who are _actually_ married, who are bored out of their minds currently and capable of helping us take him down?' And then—_violà_!"

Arthur blinked. "It is two in the morning," he said slowly, pointing at his digital clock to make his point.

"Yes?"

"And you are in my bedroom trying to convince me to become a spy – again! At two in the morning."

Merlin laughed, sounding happy and confident. Gwen had been right—it wasn't really arrogance that he had about him. "Arthur," he said half-accusingly and half-amusedly, "you woke up because practically touched your dresser! When did you _stop _being a spy?"

There was a pause.

Then Gwen spoke for them both. "Sounds like fun," she said. "Now you two get out and we'll get changed and join you."

"Now you're talking!" Merlin cried.

"You have three minutes," Morgana said as she left, cracking a grin as she dragged her new boyfriend along. Before the door shut and the room fell into darkness, he could be heard laughing.

And even when Gwen turned on the lamp, Arthur didn't try to hide his excited grin.

**End.**

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><p><strong>AN: Heeeeello! Well, usually I would wait for people to catch up and stuff, review last chapter and all that. But this chapter is so short, so I figured, what the heck. I'll just post it. So I have. Thank you all for reading this story! And please leave a last review and tell me what you thought of my work xD**


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